Water and Sewer

Posted on April 9, 2007
Filed Under Services, Cost of Living | 17 Comments

In Uruguay, the water service is handled by a State Company, Obras Sanitarias del Estado. OSE serves 98% of the Uruguayan population and supplies treated water to virtually every town and village. Because of this impressive coverage, Uruguay was the only country in South America not to suffer in the Cholera epidemic of 1991-2000.

The water for the Montevideo metropolitan area comes from the Río Santa Lucia in Lavalleja. The water is treated at a plant in Aguas Corrientes and is then pumped to the metropolitan area. The northern areas of Uruguay are fortunate enough to be sitting on top of one of the largest acquifers in the world: the Acuífero Guarani. It extends into Argentina, Paraguay and deep into Brazil. In those regions, the water is pumped from this acquifer and it needs little treatment.

Last time I was in Uruguay, I was surprised by the taste (or lack thereof) of the water in Montevideo. It did not have the strong chlorine taste, common in many parts of the world. I drank it straight out of the tap and found it to be pretty good. To be cautious, keep in mind that the final water quality at the tap also depends on what happens after it gets to the property. In Uruguay, most homes have a 500-1000 liter water reservoir on the roof. This reservoir should be cleaned periodically to remove a film of bacteria that develops on the interior walls. And there are several companies specialized in this type of work. Also, the reservoirs should be covered tightly to prevent mosquito larvae from using it as breeding ground.

I was curious to know how much we would pay for water and sewage after we move to Uruguay. So I went to the OSE site and did my best to decipher their pricing schedule. The pricing is quite complex and depends on the type of consumer, the amount of water, the diameter of the pipe coming into the residence, location etc. OSE has a pricing strategy in which the heavy users subsidize the others. I think it is to make sure water can be afforded by all. In some cases, like for low income retired people, the water service is free. To compensate for that, heavy users and users from the Punta del Este area pay a lot more for their water.

The basic pricing structure for residential connections is composed of a fixed fee that depends on the diameter of the pipe plus a progressive usage fee. Below, I transcribed part of their table of residential prices.

Fixed fee    Pipe diameter

76.11        12mm

112.33       19mm

180.94       25mm

cbm          Price

0-5          55.58

5-10         113.17

10-15        11.32/cbm

15-20        28.85/cbm  of what exceeds 15 cbm

20-25        36.92/cbm  of what exceeds 20 cbm

Please note that water prices increase VERY steeply with consumption and it hits heavy consumers severely. The cost of one cubic meter of water increases progressively to nearly five fold for heavy consumers. For example, if your consumption were to double from 11 cbm to 22 cbm, it would cost you about 3 times as much, not twice. The increase gets progressively steeper for higher amounts. Also, in the Maldonado area prices are about 30% higher. Full pricing schedule here:

To determine what our bill would be I started with the amount of water the average US person uses in a month month, 11 cubic meters (cbm), and divided by two. My thinking was, we will not have a lawn and since we are not wasteful by nature, our water consumption will be significantly lower. So, for a household with two people like us the water bill would be: 124.52 pesos plus 76.11 pesos for the connection or about 8 dollars per month.

Sewage service is provided by the same company and the pricing is based on the amount of water used:
43.03 pesos fixed cost
60% of the water consumption cost

In our case, about 4.7 dollars. Total estimated expenditure with water and sewer: 12.70 dollars per month. Please note that in Ciudad de la Costa and most of the balnearios there is no sewage connection. All waste needs to stored in a buried tank and emptied regularly by specialized companies.

The OSE bill can be paid at any RedPagos, Abitab, most banks and many supermarkets. If the bill is not paid on time the service is cut until all pending bills are settled.

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17 Responses to “Water and Sewer”

charles on April 9th, 2007 3:25 pm

That is very cheap. My water-sewer bill in Las Vegas is about 100.00 per month on average. If we didn’t water our few plants, roses and cataci it would still be more than 60 per month for two people.
Brazzie on April 9th, 2007 3:35 pm

Hi Charles. Thank you for your numbers. Does anybody else (from a non-desert area) have a water bill for two people so we can compare? Thanks, Brazzie.
Enzo on April 9th, 2007 6:49 pm

We are a family of 4, two young kids, and many laundry loads washed per week.
I think 265.41 gallons are in a cubic meter.
9/15 - 1/22 [129 days]: 11,220 gallons
5/31 - 9/15 [107 days]: 11,968 gallons
1/21 - 5/31: 10,472 gallons
Actual Usage: 33,660 gallons/year = 126.8 cbm.
Each trimester we paid no more than $156.95 for 120+ days of water, especially at 9/10ths of a cent per gallon ($0.009/gal). This amount also includes the minimum service charge ($30.48) plus the sewage fee ($108.10). The water cost portion of the bill was actually only $18.37.

———————————————
http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/2007/Update64.htm

A recent survey of 14 countries indicates that average municipal water prices range from 66¢ per cubic meter in the United States up to $2.25 in Denmark and Germany. Yet consumers rarely pay the actual cost of water. In fact, many governments practically (and sometimes literally) give water away for nothing.

The average American household consumes about 480 cubic meters (127,400 gallons) of water during a year. Homeowners in Washington, DC, pay about $350 (72¢ per cubic meter) for that amount. Buying that same amount of water from a vendor in the slums of Guatemala City would cost more than $1,700.
———————————————
Brazzie on April 9th, 2007 9:20 pm

Thanks Enzo for the detailed water consumption data. It seems that your average consumption is remarkably similar to the amount I ended up using in my calculation, 11cbm/month. As I stated before, I had been basing the average per capita American water consumption at 11cbm/month. I guess this means you guys are doing much better than the average. Great job!
Neil on April 9th, 2007 9:32 pm

Water usage= 58 m3 per quarter so thats about 14.5 m3 per month. This works out to be about $195cdn per quarter (including sewage charge) And our water costs are going way up as were in such an arid part of Canada..
Lisa on April 10th, 2007 10:12 am

Hi Brazzie,
I’ve been away for a while and I see that you have been quite busy! It will take me a while to catch up on all this good stuff. A question about water: Did you notice whether Uruguay has jumped on the band wagon of bottled mineral water? or given the good taste of the tap water and the economics have they not yet sunk to situation I find myself in of buying bottled water at more than the cost of gasoline?! (I notice on the supermarket sites that they do have some bottled water)
Brazzie on April 10th, 2007 10:30 am

Hi Lisa,
Yes bottle water phenomenon has caught on in UY as well, but not nearly as much. After all, taking into account the average wages in UY, it is outside most people’s budget. 1L of bottled water is around the same price as a bus fare or a loaf of bread. To date there are few brands and Salus (controlled by Danone) is by far the leading brand.
ApartmentsBA on April 25th, 2007 6:08 pm

Actually in Punta del Este it’s not just more expensive. It’s OUTRAGEOUSLY expensive. I have a 3 bedroom house in La Barra and I was shocked to get my water bills in 2007. There was some change in the law and they imposed something like a 600%+ or maybe more price increase. I don’t know how people put up with this. My water bill was over u$s 450 for one MONTH!

And I don’t use my house that often. I know other property owners that said the same thing. One American I know just told me. “Water is more expensive than wine there!”. He is right.

What I don’t get is how the locals can afford these prices? I guess one way is for them to STEAL water from their neighbors that aren’t living there full time. I caught my neighbor stealing water from a connection and I saw a hose going from my house to his.

It’s outrageous these kind of prices. This is South America after all.
Brazzie on April 25th, 2007 6:14 pm

Yikes! 450 in one month! Maybe a few locals were filling their swimming pools at your expense
ApartmentsBA on April 25th, 2007 6:22 pm

Hi Brazzie,

Yes. I was thinking of installing a security camera just to monitor that! LOL. As I mentioned, I already caught my neighbor stealing water. He is a local so I’m sure he can’t afford these kind of prices. I’m relieved that a British couple bought the house next door which was his so I hope they don’t need to steal my water.

Seriously though, I don’t know how the local residents can put up with these prices. It’s insane. I posted on another message board complaining about the prices and I’m cutting and pasteing below the response he posted.

Michael,

I am writing to you because of the message you posted about water in Uruguay.

You were a victim of the new local Government. What you experienced was a 1000% raise on water supplies from one day to another.

This was disgusting, incredible, unbelievable… I don’t have the words to describe it.

In other parts of Uruguay (its Capital, Montevideo for example) water is obviously not that expensive.

What happened in Punta del Este (where the wealthy people go on vacation) has to do with the communist philosophy of this new government, that wants to “take money from the rich ones to give it to the people”… PATHETIC! Seems we have Robin Hood leading our country.

I am sorry to bother you with politics, but it was necessary to explain the “reason” of the EXPENSIVE WATER.

Regards, Luis
ApartmentsBA on April 26th, 2007 6:11 pm

Well…I don’t feel so bad anymore about my water bill. Today an American client of mine that bought a house in Montoya about the same size as mine (with no pool) told me he had the surprise of his life. He got HIS water bill and it was for u$s 1,600!!!! It turns out there was some leak that he didn’t know about and his property manager never caught it.

His bill was u$s 1,600!!! Now that is a high water bill!
swissaussi on May 9th, 2007 7:56 pm

Maldonado City & Punta del Este have/will sewerage - free conection till 30.09.07 by OSE.
Here I have not seen water tanks and pressure is high (more use) & quality is very good. Most have groundwater for their lawn and pool. Water is expensive here - we manage with US$ 30 to 40/month - 2 person who save.
Brazzie on May 9th, 2007 8:03 pm

swissaussie, thanks for the info. It is good to know that it is still possible to have water bills under USD 100 in Punta del Este. Cheers
Anonymous-w on May 12th, 2007 10:28 am

It’s possible I guess if you have a well installed. I’m now going to install a well for the lawn and pool as these water bills are crazy. It’s not just me. I’ve since talked to other people that have nice gardens and lawns and their water bills are also about u$s 500/month. The key is to dig the well and get a pump system.

I’ve just inquired and the cost is about u$s 1400 or so to dig and get the pump/well installed. Without doing this, it would be outrageous.
Brazzie on May 12th, 2007 10:47 am

It seems like a good investment!
Urufish on June 2nd, 2007 4:04 pm

Few things… firstly, I agree with Luis political take…. and keep in mind, they haven’t got going yet. Wait til they win the next election… (which they should). Then you’ll see their real agenda.

Brazzie, one of our connections is atop San Antonio in Piriapolis. It’s not taxed as a ‘richman’s area. We pay OSE Maldonado. There is no diameter info on our bill. Unidades are 1 (more on that later). Our cargo fijo is $148. Even though we use no water, (meter is 744 before and after), we still get billed $73 for usage for a total of $221 in the off season. The last month we had usage was January. We consumed 7m for a total monthly charge of $293–about 10 pesos a cu m.

The other is here, at our new house in Pocitos. Our diameter is 3, (I guess that is cm??). The unidades are 2 (not sure what that means but it could mean we occupy a double lot). We are designated 5.1 (commercial). The place was a restaurant before. We cant change the designation until the final ’sanitaria’ inspection is done (2 days ago). We used 10m this past month. The total bill is $835. $364 of that is cargo fijo. 10M cost $472, or $47 per meter. Almost 400% of what it costs in Piriapolis.
A few other tidbits of information for you and the folks that take an interest in water bills. If you miss the deadline for payment, the penalty is 10%, plus interest of what looks like 1% of the balance owing.
If you get cut off, the charge for reconnection (reapertura) in Montevideo is $360.
IVA does not appear as a separate line item on an OSE bill.
You can pay IMM OSE bills through autodebit, but you can not pay Maldonado OSE bills that way.
A family of 3 with American size washing machines average 10m (cubic) per month. That doesn’t include watering the grass.
Brazzie on June 2nd, 2007 8:31 pm

Urufish, this is information is incredibly helpful. Thanks a lot.

Water and Sewer

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