Canberrans will be paying about an extra $22 a year for their water supply from July 1, after the territory's Independent Competition and Regulatory Commission announced its pricing decision for 2019-20.
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The decision will mean an average Canberra household, using about 200kL of water a year, will be paying about 1.9 per cent more for water and sewage services than 2018-19 - or about 43 cents a week.
The commission found the key drivers behind the increase were rising government charges and inflation, specifically a $1.1 million increase in revenue expected from the territory's water abstraction charge.
But the rise was consistent with the broader direction of the commission's previous five-year determination for the 2018-2023 period.
Icon Water managing director Ray Hezkial said the new prices took into account the changing costs of delivering water to the region and treating the sewage of almost 500,000 people.
"This includes capital works to upgrade our assets, including more than 6000km of pipes and a range of plants, pumping stations and reservoirs," he said.
"For example, throughout 2019-20 Icon Water expects to spend more than $10 million upgrading the tertiary filters and disinfection system at Canberra's primary sewage treatment plant.
Mr Hezkial said the water provider also planned to $16 million replacing old water and sewer mains in the next fiscal year, targeting the pipes that were most at-risk of failure, in an effort to cut the numbers of blockages, bursts and overflows.
The commission's decision follows a 3.5 per cent fall in 2018-19, and non-residential customers will see increases of between 0.5 and 1.1 per cent in 2018-19.
