A PROPOSED 30 percent increase in water rates in Shanghai is too much, many residents said at a public hearing in the city yesterday.

Instead, they said, utilities should improve their cost control and the government increase subsidies.

Shanghai authorities are planning to increase water tariffs for residents to 3.65 yuan (59 US cents) per cubic meter from 2.8 yuan to help ease losses at water companies as the city continues to invest in improving supplies and quality.

"I understand the proposed price rise, but I don't support it," said Zhang Weiyu, 24, of Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Zhang said companies which are selling water at below cost price should focus on improving cost control in fields like management. She also said that the authorities should provide detailed expenditure figures for specific companies.

During a visit to the Shinan waterworks in Huangpu District, she said she was told that more than a third of employees there were management. She said this was the cause of low efficiency.

Tao Ailian, deputy secretary general of the Shanghai Consumer Rights Protection Commission, said the city should impose steeper rises on industrial users, which pay 29 percent more for water than households at present, to cover rising costs. She compared Shanghai with Beijing, where industrial companies pay 55 percent more than households.

"The industrial sector is the main consumer and where conservation should be promoted," she said.

The government has said the increase for industrial users would be steeper, but have given no details.

Meanwhile, the majority of those at the hearing expressed a preference for a progressive tariff. Under such a system, households would pay 3.5 yuan for the first 240 cubic meters used a year. That would cover 90 percent of city households based on last year's data.

The price would rise beyond that basic volume but on average the progressive system would result in an increase of 0.85 yuan, the same as the single-price system.

Some residents said the basic volume was not enough while others suggested the government lower the proposed tariff for the basic volume.

Though the progressive plan will encourage conservation, it would require upgrading meters, and some households are still using shared meters.

"The costs of launching the progressive system will even exceed the tariff increase, making the move uneconomic," said Yang Yuli, of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. "But a progressive mechanism is definitely the right choice for the long term."

After any proposed increase, Shanghai's water prices will still be lower than those in Beijing but higher than nearby cities such as Hangzhou.