For residential customers in Tallinn and Saue, the new rate will be €1.84 per cubic meter, and for business customers, it will be €3.45 per cubic meter, plus VAT. In Maardu, both residential and business customers will have a new water rate of €3.87 per cubic meter, plus VAT.

The average water price per person is under 3 cubic meters per person, meaning the water price per month will be under €1 per person.

In a statement, Tallinn Vesi said the reason for the price change is the growing investment needs in water infrastructure and a new legal requirement to standardize water prices for residential and business customers.

The last time the company increased its prices was in 2019 and they have since only changed the electricity costs.

"In the same period, the general price has risen by around 40 percent, which has significantly raised our expenses for managing large-scale water infrastructure," said the Tallinn Vesi CEO Alexandr Timofejev.

Last year, the new Public Water Supply and Sewerage Act came into force which means water companies have to standardize the price of water services for three years for private and business customers.

"In the provision of water services in Estonia, the principle that the polluter pays more is becoming more and more entrenched. Despite the fact that this principle has been in use for many years, based on the new law, Tallinna Vesi is updating the price differences according to how much contaminated wastewater is received from the customer," said Timofejev .  

In Maardu, both residential and business customers will have a new water rate of €3.87 per cubic meter, plus VAT, but they will lose their monthly subscription fee. The price for residential and business customers is the same. Tallinna Vesi is the service provider in Maardu, but it is not the owner of the assets, meaning that Maardu is a different expense district altogether.

Tallinna Vesi owns Estonia's largest water and sewerage infrastructure, and according to Timofejev, they have invested over €80 million in updates over the past four years.

Tallinn and Saue service rates will remain the lowest in Estonia. On average, the cost of water services in Estonia constitutes about 1 percent of a household's net income, while in Tallinn, it is less than 0.5 percent.

In 2017, the state jury decided that Tallinna Vesi did not own any rights to increase the service rates of their choosing in 2011, and so the company reduced their water prices for business customers by 15 percent in 2019.

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