Beginning January 1st, Humboldt residents are going to see an increase on their water bill.

Currently, SaskWater's 30 year contract is under review and users such as the City of Humboldt are expecting an increase to rates of between seven and nine percent, therefore Monday night at their final council meeting of the year they approved a nine percent increase of their own.

City Manager Roy Hardy says they would like to have their own system and not be linked to SaskWater but we just aren't self sustaining.

"Even with the numbers that we have there it's still a relatively small system and compared to larger cities the cost of treating and moving the water over larger distances obviously it impacts the cost therefore we pay a higher cost than some of those cities do."

The increase will work out to between $5.18-$8.13 month or about $90 a year. Hardy specified that water rates need to pay for their own system and tax dollars need to be used for roads and other expenses.

"People who are not users of the system basically are not covering for those in taxes. What that means for the water and sewer system is that we try not to incur deficits that require us to put in some dollars even temporarily from tax dollars to cover the costs."

Last year the utility rate increased by eight percent.

Keeping with the theme of water system spending, council also approved borrowing of up to $940,000 to pay for water system work completed this past year. Hardy says they will be paying interest for 20 years but that's a small price for a system that now has a life expectancy of half a century or more.

You can hear more from Hardy below in his interview with Bolt FM's Clark Stork.