I'm researching the water system in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan is a former Soviet country that borders Iran.

I need to know the cost of water in other cities in the Former Soviet
Union.  Alternately data for whole countries in the Former Soviet
Union would work.

In Baku residential customers pay for water
* a tariff of AZM 370 per m3 of water, which is US 7.8c
* an average water bill per household of AZM 19950, which is US $4.24 per month

An answer should include two things:
How much is the tariff a household pays in per m3 of water
How much is the average bill in the city/region paid by households

I would also like to know the source of the data

Tip of $5 per additional city in the former Soviet Union for up to a
total of three cities, then a little extra per country by discretion
depending what is found. If you manage to find all this data for many
cities in one place in an official report from some type of
development agency that would be easy for you and great for me too.

Former Soviet Countries according to Wikipedia are: Armenia,
Azerbaijan (excluded), Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russian Federation,
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan.

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Clarification of Question by imgoingga-ga on 26 Jun 2005 14:17 PDT

Thanks very much harijs! I appreciate the assistance.

In Riga, Latvia:
0.4652 LVL per m3 of water (0.8035 US $ per m3)

I didn't manage to find the average water bill per household, but you
can approximate it this way:
The average water consumption of Riga is 160 000 m3 of water per day
The population of Riga is approximately 830 000
So, 160 000/830 000 * 30 days = 5.78 m3 of water per month, or 4.65 US
$ per month per person

There is an average of 2.51 people per household in Latvia, so the
average bill per household could be 2,51 * 4.65 = 11.67 US $ per
household

I realize this isn't too accurate, since there is some industrial and
commercial water usage, too; thus the bill will probably be lower.
However, my water bill for the last month was 10.90 US $, so this
approximation could be rather near the real figure.

Sources:
My water bill
Riga Water (www.rw.lv)
Latvia's Central Statistic Bureau (www.csb.lv)

That's pretty good and i'd happily have it as an answer with a $5 tip,
but subject to one small catch - are these numbers for households?

Is the 160,000m3 of water per day *household's* consumption or total consumption?

Also, is the 0.4652 figure a household tariff?

Thanks!
Richard

Sorry I didn't read your original post carefully - you already
acknowledged it includes commercial and industrial uses.  Thanks for
the info.  The information about the average household consumption is
not so important now.  You can post that as is as a five star answer
as is, but without a tip.

If you can provide an exact URL where the tariff is stated, that would
be handy.  I can't of course read Latvian, and US$10.90 is a very big
water bill for a month, so i'm like to get questioned on it.  Also
just for verification, can you also restate the exact amount of your
personal water bill, in LVL. Thanks for the assistance!

Also please advise, is your water metered, or are you charged based on
an "assumed" monthly consumption per person/per household? If
unmetered and you know what the assumption is, that would be handy.

Also, is your water on 24 hours 7 days or just sometimes, if so how
often.  Can you drink your water from the tap or do you have to filter
and boil it?

I think I am going to end up owing you a tip after all...

Thanks
Richard

I'm not a Google researcher so I can't post an answer, I'm just glad to help.
The water is on 24 hours 7 days, except a period of about 3 days twice
a year when there are maintenance works on the water system.

My water is metered, it is metered for most of the households in
Latvia. However, for households that do not have meters, there is an
assumed consumption. The consumption can be found in this table here:
http://www.rw.lv/img/doc/ukpn.xls
It is in Latvian, however; generally it divides households into 5
following categories; cathegory 1 has both cold and hot water, the
assumed consumption is 6.08 m3 of water per month and thus 2.83 LVL
per person per month. Cathegory 2 has cold water and has a gas or
electrical water boiler, the assumed consumption is 5.78 m3 of water
per month and thus 2.69 LVL per person per month; etc.

It is generally safe to drink the water from tap here, it's a big
improvement from the times of the Soviet Union, when the water had to
be boiled. There are some regions both in Riga and Latvia, however,
where boiling of the water is reccomended - like eastern Riga, which
gets its water from Jugla lake, and time from time water samples taken
from that lake show too many bacteria for the water to be safe without
boiling it.

The amount of my water bill was 6.37 LVL.

The exact URL where the tariff is stated is:
http://www.rw.lv/lv/main.php?x=03_01

If you have any more questions, I will be glad to answer them.

Thanks for your help Harijs.