Commodities & Metals

This City Has the Most Expensive Water in the World

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: November 15, 2021 8:30 am

Water has become a precious commodity worldwide. In the United States, for example, many of the western states have been plagued by drought. For the first time ever, the federal government declared a water shortage on the Colorado River, the BBC reports. Forty million people rely on the river for water. Huge bodies of water in the west, like Lake Mead, are shrinking rapidly. Arizona has issued a water shortage declaration for the first time. There is a chance that this is permanent.
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The World Wildlife Federation reports that the water scarcity problem is just as bad worldwide. It claims that 1.1 billion people worldwide lack access to water. Another 2.7 billion face a similar problem at least one month out of the year, and matters will get worse. Recently, the WWF forecast that “By 2025, two-thirds of the world’s population may face water shortages. And ecosystems around the world will suffer even more.”

Despite these issues, millions of people continue to drink bottled water. In some cases, this water travels thousands of miles to market. Fiji Water is delivered to 60 countries. The distance from Fiji to New York City is almost 8,000 miles.

Holidu’s recent The Water Price Index report looked at the price of tap water and bottled water in 30 U.S. cities and another 100 around the world. It used this to calculate the average price of water in each of these locations. Because of water shortages, it looked at the level of water stress in each city, which includes water shortages and restrictions. The balance of the methodology included what a tourist would pay for a bottle of water in a supermarket and the average price of a bottle of water from three companies: Evian, Perrier/Nestlé and the local Coca-Cola brand.

The city with the highest average price of water was Oslo, Norway, at $6.69. The next cities were San Francisco and Stuttgart. These are the 20 cities with the highest price of water:

• Oslo ($6.69)
• San Francisco ($6.07)
• Stuttgart ($5.67)
• San Diego ($5.38)
• Copenhagen ($5.30)
• Brisbane ($5.21)
• Indianapolis ($5.17)
• Rotterdam ($4.84)
• Seattle ($4.60)
• Toronto ($4.59)
• Portland ($4.55)
• Amsterdam ($4.43)
• Melbourne ($4.41)
• Stockholm ($4.37)
• Lyon ($4.33)
• Adelaide ($4.32)
• Brussels ($4.24)
• Hamburg ($4.24)
• Munich ($4.19)
• Frankfurt ($4.04)

Click here to read about the best place to enjoy the water in each state.