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The Wastewater Charge

The wastewater charge applies to all households & businesses with a drinking water supply, this may come directly from the mains or from a borehole or well, this is due to the fact that wastewater from the property will still be required to enter the wastewater network at some point. Either directly through a connection of waste pipes into the sewer network or indirectly via a cesspit which will be emptied by a tanker with the contents later discharged into the public sewer. As recognition to customers on a cesspit, the cesspit collection rate was reduced from £12.00 per load to £6.00 per load upon the introduction of the wastewater charge in 2011. The current rates can be viewed on our water charges page by clicking the button below

 View Our Current Water Charges Here

A typical outfall

The charge has two elements in the same way charges for water have. The standing charge and the variable charge. The standing charge covers the fixed costs inherent in maintaining the wastewater network irrespective of use, this includes, staffing and asset management. The variable charge covers the costs directly related to the amount of flow generated. The wastewater network benefits all islanders.

The States of Guernsey agreed the principle of introducing a charge for wastewater in 2007. It adopted the user pays principle in relation to wastewater. At that time wastewater operations were managed and financed directly by the States of Guernsey. In April 2011 the wastewater charge was introduced and was administered on behalf of the States of Guernsey by Guernsey Water. In January 2012 Guernsey Water took over full responsibility for the operations and finance and indeed all aspects of wastewater.

In 2018, a decision was made to rebalance water and wastewater charges in order to better reflect how much it costs Guernsey Water to provide these services. Since wastewater charges were first introduced in 2011, Guernsey Water has developed a much better understanding of how much it costs to provide this service. This, and the imbalance, were highlighted in Guernsey Water's 2017 Annual Report.

For the majority of customers, this rebalance represented a total bill freeze for 2019. For a small number of customers, those on private supplies, a rise in quarterly bills was experienced. However, in light of this, Guernsey Water made private domestic supply metering available and introduced a mains water extension programme in order to offer the same user pays options as those available to customers on mains water.

Learn More About Our Wastewater Network

Learn More About The Charges Rebalance

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