Water utilities
Water and wastewater providers worldwide, with ownership, regulation, service area and performance.
The largest water and sewerage company in the UK by population served, covering London and the Thames Valley. It operates the oldest and most heavily loaded network in the country, and has…
The publicly owned water and sewerage provider for the whole of Scotland, and the only UK water utility not in private ownership. It supplies a country with roughly twice England’s rainfal…
Singapore’s national water agency, and the most-studied example anywhere of a country engineering its way out of near-total water dependence. Its "four national taps" strategy combines loc…
The largest water services company in the world by revenue, operating mainly through concession and operating contracts rather than by owning assets.
- Country
- France and international
- Ownership
- Private, listed
- Services
- Water and wastewater
- Population served
- Over 100 million worldwide
- Regulated by
- Varies by concession
Serves the English Midlands from the Bristol Channel to the Humber. Its supply depends substantially on long-distance transfer from Welsh reservoirs, notably the Elan Valley aqueduct to Bi…
Serves eastern England — the driest region of the UK, with parts of Essex and Cambridgeshire receiving under 600 mm of rainfall a year, comparable to parts of the Mediterranean. It has the…
Serves North West England. Its resource position is unusually comfortable by English standards because of high Lake District and Pennine rainfall, and it operates the Haweswater and Thirlm…
Supplies most of Wales and parts of western England under a distinctive not-for-profit structure adopted in 2001. It is the principal third model in the UK alongside private shareholder ow…
The second major French water and waste group, operating water and wastewater concessions internationally, with a substantial technology and desalination business.
- Country
- France and international
- Ownership
- Private
- Services
- Water and wastewater
- Population served
- Tens of millions worldwide
- Regulated by
- Varies by concession
Serves Yorkshire from an integrated grid that allows water to be moved across the region — a direct response to the 1995 drought, when the company came close to running out of water and re…
Serves Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Heavily dependent on chalk groundwater, which links its supply directly to winter recharge and makes it unusually exposed to consecuti…
Serves North East England, and separately Essex and Suffolk as Essex & Suffolk Water. Kielder Water, the largest reservoir in the UK by capacity, gives it the most comfortable resource pos…
Serves Devon and Cornwall — a small resident population, a very long coastline requiring extensive wastewater infrastructure, and a summer population several times the winter one.
Supplies Greater Sydney. The Millennium Drought of 1997–2009 reshaped its planning entirely, driving desalination capacity, demand management and permanent water efficiency rules that persisted after the drought ended.
- Country
- Australia
- Ownership
- New South Wales state-owned corporation
- Services
- Water and wastewater
- Population served
- 5.3 million
- Regulated by
- IPART, NSW Health, EPA NSW
Serves São Paulo state, including one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world. The 2014–2015 Cantareira crisis, when the main supply system fell below 5% of usable capacity, is one of the clearest modern examples of a megacity approaching supply failure.
- Country
- Brazil
- Ownership
- Mixed public-private, listed
- Services
- Water and wastewater
- Population served
- Over 28 million
- Regulated by
- ARSESP
Serves Dorset, Somerset, Bristol and Wiltshire, drawing largely on chalk and limestone groundwater and consistently reporting among the lower leakage rates in the industry.
Israel’s national water company. It operates the National Water Carrier and integrates desalination, treated wastewater reuse and conventional sources into a single managed system — the reason Israel reuses a higher share of its treated wastewater than any other country.
- Country
- Israel
- Ownership
- State-owned company
- Services
- Water supply only
- Population served
- National
- Regulated by
- Israel Water Authority
The government-owned water and sewerage provider for Northern Ireland. Households are not charged separately for water; the service is funded from the block grant, which constrains investm…
A water-supply-only company covering parts of Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Surrey and north London. Around 60% of its supply is chalk groundwater, and it has faced …
The bulk water supplier to Gauteng, South Africa’s economic centre. It depends on the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, which transfers water from Lesotho into the Vaal system — one of the largest international water transfer schemes in the world.
- Country
- South Africa
- Ownership
- State-owned entity
- Services
- Water supply only
- Population served
- Over 11 million
- Regulated by
- Department of Water and Sanitation
A water-supply-only company covering parts of Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire and Berkshire, in the most water-stressed part of the UK.
Serves Washington DC. Notable for a lead-in-water crisis in the early 2000s traced to a change in disinfectant from chlorine to chloramine, which destabilised protective scale in lead service lines — a case study in how a change made for one water quality reason created a different one.
- Country
- United States
- Ownership
- Independent municipal authority
- Services
- Water and wastewater
- Population served
- 700,000 plus regional wastewater
- Regulated by
- US EPA, DC government
An appointed water supply company serving Bristol and the surrounding area, reporting annual water resources performance to the Environment Agency. Hydrionis holds its Environment Agency i…
An appointed water supply company in Cambridgeshire, drawing largely on chalk groundwater in one of the driest and fastest-growing parts of England. Hydrionis holds its Environment Agency …
An appointed water supply company covering separate areas of Essex and Suffolk, reporting annual water resources performance to the Environment Agency. Hydrionis holds its Environment Agen…
An appointed water supply company on the south coast of England, reporting annual water resources performance to the Environment Agency. It consistently reports among the lowest per-person…
An appointed water supply company in Surrey and parts of Kent and south London, reporting annual water resources performance to the Environment Agency. Hydrionis holds its Environment Agen…
An appointed water supply company in the West Midlands, reporting annual water resources performance to the Environment Agency. Hydrionis holds its leakage, distribution input, consumption…