That’s also the case in a lot of north american cities. If you’re pumping your own well out in the country, then it’s “free” (plus costs of running the pump and any well maintenance you need, also depending on availability in your water table), but if you’re in a town or city you have a matered water line that gets charged to cover both the clean water supply and waste management (at least that’s how it works in the Canadian town I live in, maybe other locations meter the waste side, too).
My water bill gets lumped with my power bill but they are itemized seperately with usage graphs for each of them.
If someone needed water, I’d give it to them without even thinking about the cost because my whole month of water use is only like $50 (and the metered bit is only $20 of that, though that does imply the lighter users are subsidizing the heavier ones, but that’s a seperate issue).
It’s literally less than a cent (euro or dollar) for a whole bottle of tap water.
Out of curiosity I checked the price I pay for tap water in Portugal and 1 m³ (1000 l) costs around €0.5, so a 2l bottle of tap water contains all of 0.01 euro cents worth of it.
You do realise that tap water isn’t free in many European countries, right? Buildings have a meter and the owner or tenant gets a bill every month.
That’s also the case in a lot of north american cities. If you’re pumping your own well out in the country, then it’s “free” (plus costs of running the pump and any well maintenance you need, also depending on availability in your water table), but if you’re in a town or city you have a matered water line that gets charged to cover both the clean water supply and waste management (at least that’s how it works in the Canadian town I live in, maybe other locations meter the waste side, too).
My water bill gets lumped with my power bill but they are itemized seperately with usage graphs for each of them.
If someone needed water, I’d give it to them without even thinking about the cost because my whole month of water use is only like $50 (and the metered bit is only $20 of that, though that does imply the lighter users are subsidizing the heavier ones, but that’s a seperate issue).
It’s literally less than a cent (euro or dollar) for a whole bottle of tap water.
Out of curiosity I checked the price I pay for tap water in Portugal and 1 m³ (1000 l) costs around €0.5, so a 2l bottle of tap water contains all of 0.01 euro cents worth of it.