A mother from Cardiff, Victoria Owen, says she has already cut as much as she can from her household bills, but she still struggles to make ends meet. As a single parent, she has taken steps to reduce water usage, such as encouraging her children to take shorter showers and reusing water after washing dishes. She has a water meter, which means she is charged based on actual water consumption rather than an estimated flat rate. Despite these efforts, she says she spends nearly every spare penny on household expenses, with only her Netflix subscription left to cut. Water companies in England and Wales have been approved to raise bills by an extra £3.4 billion over the next few years to address infrastructure and environmental challenges. Welsh Water, the main water and sewerage provider in Wales, plans to invest £4.2 billion by 2030 to improve its services. Most areas in Wales will see a 27% increase in water bills starting in April 2025, raising the average annual bill from £503 to £639. This is the beginning of a five-year period of rising water costs, with a total increase of 42% expected by 2029-30. A survey by the Office for National Statistics found that 84% of people had taken at least one step to reduce their water use in the past month. However, Welsh Liberal Democrats revealed that Welsh Water lost 85 billion litres of water due to leaks in 2024/2025, with Hafren Dyfrdwy losing 5.4 billion litres in the same period. David Chadwick, a Welsh Liberal Democrat, has urged the company to "urgently get its house in order" by repairing its leaking infrastructure. Welsh Water aims to reduce leakage in its network by 24% by 2030, investing £476 million as part of a long-term improvement project. The company also noted that climate change is affecting water management, as drier soil conditions increase the risk of pipe bursts during summer. Robert and Bernadette Guy from Cardiff said they were shocked to learn their Welsh Water bill would rise by about £400 this year, reaching £1,400 annually. They installed a water meter, which brought their bill down to £600 per year. Robert said they are now more careful with their water use, even collecting water in pint glasses to use in their garden. He believes it's unfair to expect customers to fix problems caused by years of underinvestment in aging infrastructure. Professor Ian Walker, head of psychology at Swansea University, explained that people may be "constrained by automatic habits" when it comes to water use. He suggested making water-saving measures more automatic, like installing low-flow showerheads, to help reduce usage. Welsh Water stated that its bills have "historically been held below inflation in real terms for much of the past decade" and that there is now a "widely recognised need for increased investment" to meet environmental requirements, respond to climate change, and improve the resilience of its infrastructure. Customers pay an average of less than £2 per day for drinking water that is consistently ranked as the highest quality in the world.