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The Water Utility of Zürich is publicly owned but financially self-supporting. It recognizes
the benefits of saving water but has two major concerns about the consequences:
1. with a decrease in demand, it would probably have to raise prices and risk angering the
public because of the high fixed costs of the supply system and
2. water quality could be threatened by a decreased demand that, in turn, decreases
the flow within the system.
At present, the system has approximately 100% over-capacity with respect to average demand.
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The Utility only receives a minimal budget for information campaigns from the government so
it has not been able to clarify these potential problems to consumers. It could include more information
in the water bill to explain the consumption/cost relationship but it still requires public support for
structural changes in the bill. This is improbable since most customers are flat renters who only pay for
a part of the water consumed by the whole accommodation block.
There is a final concern that if supply system efficiency is not maintained and the Utility's
public popularity drops then it could be privatised through a referendum.
Goal
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