Melbourne Water is a statutory authority owned by the Victorian Government. We provide wholesale water and sewerage services to Melbourne's retail water businesses, and partner with councils and other organisations to deliver waterway and drainage services to the Greater Melbourne region.

We work on all parts of the water cycle that are essential to our way of life. We provide clean drinking water, treat sewage, manage floodplains, and keep Melbourne’s rivers, creeks and catchments healthy.

Melbourne Water is also the Catchment Management Authority (CMA) for the Port Phillip and Westernport region.

Every five years, Victorian water corporations develop a Price Submission – a five-year plan that outlines service standards, infrastructure investments, expenditure, and proposed prices for that period. This submission covers the period from 2026 to 2031.

The price submission will outline our proposed services and investments over the next five years across :

• water
• sewerage 
• waterways and drainage 
• the cost of delivering these services
• the prices we intend to charge.

Our Price Submission 2026 is being developed with community to ensure value for our customers. The submission includes key customer outcomes we intend to deliver, investments we’ll make to achieve them, and how we will measure and report on our performance, so customers know we’re delivering on our commitment.

The Price Submission is subject to approval by the Essential Services Commission (ESC), Victoria’s independent economic regulator, who review prices for water and other essential services to protect the interests of customers. The ESC will provide their final decision June 2026.

The bill you receive from your water retailer helps fund the services we deliver. Around 50% of your bill covers Melbourne Water’s wholesale costs for the services outlined in our submission. This portion of your bill goes to Melbourne Water because they provide wholesale water supply and sewage management services to water retail companies, who then provide it to your household.  The rest of your bill covers your water retailer’s planned works and investments.

Your water bill is made up of the following charges:

• Water: wholesale water charges go towards storing, treating and transferring water from catchments, and producing water from the Victorian Desalination Plant.  
• Sewerage: wholesale sewerage charges fund the transfer and treatment of sewage, which is supplied as recycled water or discharged to our bays. 
• Waterways and Drainage Charge: This funds a range of activities to protect and improve waterway health, manage drainage and provide flood protection. 
• Parks Charge: Collected on behalf of the Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate Action to support Melbourne’s parks, trails, public facilities across Melbourne, including zoos, the Royal Botanic Gardens and Shrine of Remembrance. 

As the designated waterway and floodplain manager for Greater Melbourne and the surrounding region, Melbourne Water must also prepare a Waterways and Drainage Investment Plan. This supports the waterways and drainage elements of our Price Submission.

The Waterways and Drainage Investment Plan is a requirement of the Statement of Obligations issued by the Minister for Water, and details our responsibilities, goals, levels of service and programs of work for waterway management, flood management and drainage.

The plan will guide our work maintaining and improving waterways, managing stormwater, and enhancing flood resilience across Greater Melbourne in collaboration with local councils and other partners. The investment priorities outlined in the price submission 2026 have been developed with community and stakeholders, while also meeting our obligations.

In developing the Price Submission 2026, we have engaged with a wide and diverse range of customers, community and stakeholders to inform our proposals.

We have undertaken extensive engagement to develop our proposals, as well as testing our proposed prices to ensure we are reflecting customer and community expectations in our work, while meeting our service obligations.

Engagement was done through:

• a specialised Water Corporation Forum for our retail customers
• community deliberative panels (including a tour of our Western Treatment Plant)
• customer forum for waterways and drainage
• online and telephone surveys
• community events
• engagement with special interest and community groups
• one-on-one meetings with key stakeholders and customers

The findings from the engagement shaped our submission, balanced with our obligations and critical investments required.

Over the last 18 months, we’ve heard from more than 3,000 customers and communities. From your feedback, we have developed a series of priorities that we are using to direct our decision making:

1. Clean, safe and reliable water services.
2. Resilient and sustainable sewerage services and infrastructure.
3. Continue to support and protect waterway health.
4. Ensure resilience and reliability for the whole water cycle (water, sewerage, flood and drainage management, and waterway health) now and into the future.
5. Keep bills as low as possible but also support investments in reliable services for a growing Melbourne and changing environment.
6. Provide regional and intergenerational equity and hardship support to customers who need it.
7. Active collaboration with delivery partners, Traditional Owners, local government and community organisations.

Our water corporation partners and stakeholders want us to:

1. Share the risks related to water and sewage demand and have fairer pricing with more variable charges.
2. Update bulk supply agreements, including commitments to collaborative planning, reviewing who is best placed to manage and operate which assets, and having more regular reviews of our supply agreements.
3. Commit to timely infrastructure delivery and reliable services, supported by new guaranteed service levels.
4. Provide simpler outcomes that are clearly linked to each service that is delivered by Melbourne water.
5. Have greater transparency in the costs of delivering drainage service schemes and commitments to turn around times of applications.

The results of our engagement since 2023, have formed a customer-end-use document called the playback, that summarises: 

• what we’ve heard and learnt from customers 
• how we’re responding to customer feedback 
• emerging MW outcomes 
• price paths and the services they provide.  

From 6 to 30 May, we are undertaking the public playback period, asking the community to review and provide feedback on our proposals for us to gain an understanding on bill impacts and if investment and performance proposals meet community expectations. 

Information collected during this phase will help finalise our submission, including directing programs and price paths, that will be submitted to the Essential Service Commission on 1 October 2025.

For more information, and how to provide feedback, visit the Price Submission 2026 homepage.

The Essential Services Commission uses the PREMO water pricing framework to review prices submitted to them by Melbourne Water and other Victorian water businesses.

The PREMO framework focuses on five elements:

• Performance
• Risk
• Engagement
• Management
• Outcomes

We used this framework in our Price Submission 2021 to deliver deeper engagement with customers and community earlier in the submission process.

The PREMO framework will be used for Price Submission 2026 to deepen our understanding of our customers and their preferences.

Our proposed investments would result in the bill you receive from your water corporation not increasing above inflation in from 1 July 2026, and then increasing by up to 2.3 per cent per year above inflation from 1 July 2027 to 30 June 2031.

*Note: changes in costs above do not include inflation or changes in water corporation retailer charges, figures have been rounded and may not represent your own household or business .

To deliver on the services our customers have told us they value, while grappling with inflation, increasing construction costs (30% increase in past five years), and managing billions of dollars of ageing assets – increased investment is critical, and it is no longer viable to hold prices flat. 

We now face growing challenges that our essential services and ageing infrastructure that we need to address, including rapid population growth, climate change, and substantial state-wide developments. These Investments will allow us to continue providing essential water services – services that our community relies on for safe and reliable water, sewerage, waterways and drainage services every day.

We understand managing bills can be tough. Support is available for people experiencing hardship due to the potential bill pressures. 

If you’re struggling, reach out to your water corporation to discuss what kind of help is available, some of which can include:  

• concession discounts of up to 50% for registered customers.
• flexible payment plans and bill extensions
• utility relief grants of up to $650 for households facing hardship.

Contact your local water corporation:

• Yarra Valley Water website or call 1300 441 248
• Greater Western Water website or call 13 44 99
• South East Water website or call 131 994

We understand the impacts of cost-of-living pressures on the community. We are continuing to put downward pressure on our prices and have closely scrutinised our proposals to ensure the best value for customers.

We are proposing, in partnership with retail water corporations, to increasing measures to support customers experiencing vulnerability – so that all customers have access to support when they need it.

To find out more, download our Playback document.