The French city of Lyon has introduced a new water pricing system, in which the first few cubic metres are free, and bigger consumers pay for any cubic metres above this.
The measure was introduced in the city on January 1, 2025.
The change is part of a gradual pricing system that will increase the price of large-scale water consumption.
How does the system work?
The first few cubic metres of water used per household are free, up to 12m³ per household per year.
After that, the prices increase to:
The average person in Lyon uses 54m³ of water per year, reports Le Figaro. The new measure is aiming to encourage users to consume 15% less water by 2035.
Bruno Bernard, the city's president, wrote on X (Twitter): “The first few cubic metres of water for our residents is now free, up to 12 m³ per household, to guarantee vital needs. Water is not a commodity like any other.”
Similarly, Anne Grosperrin, vice-president of the Greater Lyon Metropolitan Authority and chair of the Greater Lyon Public Water Board, also defended the change, speaking to Le Figaro.
She said: “This pricing system distinguishes between different uses,” and said that while “washing and drinking are vital needs…washing your car or watering your begonias are leisure uses”.
It comes after fears that the Rhône river, the main source of water for the city, is expected to reduce in volume by 20-30% by 2050.
Read also: Seven tips on how to save water and reduce your bills in France
Similar measures elsewhere
Similar measures have been implemented in other French cities, including Dunkirk (Nord), Rennes (Brittany), and Montpellier (Occitanie). In the latter, a similar scheme has seen water consumption drop by 3.5% in the past year.
For its part, Dunkirk has categorised water use in three ways since 2012: essential, useful and comfortable. For uses above 200m³, each m³ costs €3.10. Almost every one of the city’s 91,000 households has a water meter installed, to ensure accurate measurements and billing.
Price bands are calculated based on the average consumption of a four-person household, which equates to 120m³per year. Larger families can benefit from a water cheque to lighten their bills although only 10% of eligible families actually collect their cheques, possibly due to the extra admin involved.
Read also: ‘Check your water meter’: couple’s €2,700 bill for leak at French home
Read more: French mayor increases summer tariffs to make people use less water
Limits on usage data
Yet, privacy laws limit authorities from gaining a deeper understanding of each household’s usage. For example, the CPAM (the French health insurance authority) can supply data about the poorest families, in a bid to prevent them from being disproportionately charged, but it cannot share details on household composition.
This means that authorities do not know for sure if a household’s high water consumption is due to, for example, a large family with six children; or a single person who takes extra-long showers, over-waters their garden and washes their car daily.
Dunkirk city authorities are hoping that the CAF (family benefits office) will eventually allow it to see more data in future, to help it to reduce penalising larger families and justified users.
Other authorities, such as those in Rennes Métropole and Montpellier, are also asking the CAF and CPAM for the same information, in a bid to improve their schemes for larger families.
Some metropoles have declined to introduce such a water billing system for this reason. For example, Bordeaux had introduced a similar system, but abandoned it in early 2024 in favour of raising all water prices slightly.
This was because it could not gain access to the data that would have enabled it to create tariff bands tailored to a household’s usage.
‘A question we are asking ourselves’
Authorities in Lyon have defended their new system within this context, but admitted there are still questions to resolve.
Ms Grosperrin said that the city had defined “over-consumption” at 180m³, as “this, in our area, keeps [an average] family of eight in the bracket where one m³ is billed at €1.29 excluding VAT”.
Yet, there are still unanswered questions about the implications of charging households with larger families - or even with swimming pools - proportionally more than others.
Read more: Why household water bills are set to soar in France
“This is a question we are asking ourselves,” she said. “[Domestic] users are perhaps not best-placed to finance this public service.”
This is particularly true given that 2024 figures from France Stratégie suggest that domestic water use accounts for just 14% of total water consumption, with the rest used by companies and large-scale farmers, she said.
