Waternet drinking water: hardness and 2026 tariff

Reading time: ~13 minutes

Who is Waternet and where does it supply drinking water?

Waternet is the water company that provides the drinking water for Amsterdam and the municipalities around it. It supplies Amsterdam, Amstelveen, Diemen, Heemstede, Muiden, Muiderberg and Ouderkerk aan de Amstel. Beyond that the water belongs to someone else, and that is straight away the first misconception we clear up.

Waternet is not a province wide company. Anyone living in Haarlem, Alkmaar or Zaanstad does not get Waternet but the drinking water from PWN, and that is a different company with different sources and a different hardness. In Flevoland and large parts of Gelderland and Overijssel it is the water quality of Vitens instead. Three companies, three stories, and a postcode boundary that runs straight through North Holland.

Waternet also does more than drinking water alone. It manages the sewers, the water levels and the treatment of waste water in the area of Waterschap Amstel, Gooi en Vecht (the regional Dutch water authority). That dual role is precisely the reason the organisation was reorganised in 2026, and that is what the next section is about.

If you are specifically interested in the city rather than the company, then the tap water of Amsterdam is the piece you are looking for. This page covers the company, the whole supply area, the tariffs and the measurements.

The 2026 split and the new name

This appears in no comparison article and it is the answer to one of the most frequently asked questions about this company. Since 1 January 2026, Waternet no longer exists as a single organisation.

The general board of Waterschap Amstel, Gooi en Vecht and the Amsterdam city council decided definitively in July 2025 to split the foundation. Since 1 January 2026 there are two separate water organisations: one for the tasks of the water authority and one for the Amsterdam water tasks. That same decision contains one sentence that answers the naming question: the Waternet brand name will be phased out from 1 January 2026.

Phasing out is not the same as disappearing overnight. Your bill, the website and customer services are currently still running under Waternet, now under the flag of the municipality of Amsterdam. The drinking water task stays with the Amsterdam organisation, and a separate study is under way into an independent drinking water organisation and into cooperation with other water companies.

The reason was supervision, not money. The Inspectie Leefomgeving en Transport (the Dutch environment and transport inspectorate), the Belastingdienst (the Dutch tax administration) and the Rekenkamer Metropoolregio Amsterdam (the Amsterdam metropolitan region audit office) found that the old structure did not make it sufficiently clear who was responsible for what. Splitting solved that.

Where does the drinking water of Amsterdam come from?

From two production sites, and neither of them uses deep groundwater. That is the fact the rest of this piece explains.

The first site is Leiduin, in the dunes near Vogelenzang. The raw material is mainly river water from the Lekkanaal, topped up with natural dune water. That river water is brought to the dunes, sinks through the sand there and is pumped up again and purified further. The second site is Weesperkarspel, in Amsterdam South East. There, seepage water from the Bethunepolder near Maarssen is the main raw material; at times of high demand water from the Amsterdam-Rijnkanaal can be added. Waternet describes the full route from source to tap in ten steps.

Why this matters: according to the RIVM (the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment), about 60% of Dutch drinking water nationally comes from groundwater, and drinking water made from groundwater contains less PFAS than drinking water from surface water. Amsterdam sits on the surface water side of that divide. That does not make the water unsafe, but it does explain why the PFAS section below looks different from that of an area on deep groundwater. How the filter techniques compare and which water filter adds the most with soft water is set out on our overview page.

How hard is the water in Amsterdam?

Soft, and at Waternet that is the same figure for everyone. The hardness is 7.8 degrees of German hardness, or 1.40 millimoles per litre. Waternet is unusually clear about this: every customer gets water of this hardness, whether you live in Amsterdam or in Amstelveen, Diemen, Heemstede, Muiden, Muiderberg or Ouderkerk aan de Amstel.

That 7.8 is no coincidence either. In 2015 Waternet deliberately made the water softer, from 8.4 to 7.8 °dH, by taking extra limescale out of the water during production. Amsterdam therefore sits just on the soft side of the line, and on purpose.

The practical consequences of that are pleasant and dull. Less limescale in your kettle, boiler and dishwasher, and less detergent needed. Waternet advises checking the packaging of your detergent for what you need at 7.8 °dH, and setting your dishwasher and coffee machine to that value. If you live elsewhere, take a look at water hardness per municipality or at hard water in the Netherlands; the differences within the country are bigger than most people think.

What does drinking water cost at Waternet in 2026?

With a water meter you pay €1.18 per 1,000 litres and a €90.55 standing charge per year in 2026. Those amounts exclude 9% VAT and exclude the tap water tax, which in 2026 stands at €0.44 per 1,000 litres. One cubic metre is 1,000 litres.

Waternet publishes its tariffs excluding VAT and tax, and that makes comparison difficult. So here is the all in calculation you will not find anywhere else.

Work it through for a household using 100 cubic metres a year: 100 times €1.77 is €176.58, plus €98.70 standing charge is about €275 a year, or some €22.90 a month. Per litre you arrive at €0.00275 all in. A litre of bottled water costs €0.40 to €1.00, so for that you pay a factor of 145 to 365 more. The broad calculation for the whole of the Netherlands is at what a cubic metre of water costs.

Waternet also gives its own worked examples, and those are useful because they start from actual average consumption. Note: these amounts exclude VAT and tap water tax.

If you have no water meter, you pay per unit of your home: €25.81 per unit plus a €80.37 standing charge per year, again excluding VAT and tax. Those tariffs also fell compared with 2025.

Is Waternet expensive? The honest calculation

It is the most frequently asked question about this company, and the answer surprises most people. Waternet tariffs actually went down in 2026. The variable tariff fell by 4 cents per 1,000 litres and the standing charge by almost €8 a year. Waternet explains that with a windfall: more income and lower spending than budgeted, and the company gives that back to its customers.

What is more, set the tariff alongside the rest of the country and Waternet sits at the bottom end. According to trade body Vewin (the association of Dutch water companies), the weighted average drinking water tariff in the Netherlands in 2026 is €2.05 per cubic metre excluding taxes, with a spread of €1.75 to €2.71 between companies. Waternet charges €1.18. That is not just under the average, it is well under it, and it is the only figure that really answers the question.

Where the sense of expense comes from is the make up of the bill. On your drinking water you pay two kinds of tax: the tap water tax, and on top of that 9% VAT on the total amount including that tax. Tax on tax, in other words. Waternet names this openly itself and points out that all water companies in the Netherlands have to pass it on. Nationally, according to Vewin, the drinking water bill consists of 24.9% taxes and 75.1% the costs of the water company. On bottled water the consumption tax has in fact been abolished entirely since 2024, which Vewin calls a perverse incentive.

Two things that can push your bill up and that have nothing to do with the tariff. First the instalment amount: without a submitted meter reading you pay against an estimate, not against your meter. Second your own consumption, because showering, flushing and the garden are the biggest users according to Waternet. Work out your own need at how much water you need per day.

And one warning for the years ahead. The ceiling of the tap water tax was raised on 1 January 2026, meaning tax is paid on a larger share of your consumption. Waternet also warns itself that the price will rise over time, because demand for drinking water in Amsterdam is growing and production has to be expanded.

Is there PFAS in the drinking water of Amsterdam?

Traces, and Waternet is open about it. The company uses activated carbon to take PFAS out of the drinking water and is working on additional techniques using membranes. Het Waterlaboratorium (the Dutch water laboratory) checks the water daily for more than a hundred substances, and PFAS is present in such low concentrations that it is measured in nanograms: a billionth of a gram per litre.

Two limit values get mixed up, and that is the source of almost all the confusion about this subject.

The RIVM establishes that Dutch drinking water meets the statutory 100 nanograms, and additionally advises using the stricter guidance value of 4.4 nanograms per litre because PFAS can already have an effect on the immune system at very small quantities. Waternet publishes the measurement series per production site, Leiduin and Weesperkarspel separately, in its water quality reports. Anyone who wants the precise figure for their own location gets it there and not from a comparison site.

Two figures that complete the picture. The RIVM calculated that people take in about three times as much PFAS through food as through drinking water, and that intake through drinking water alone stays below the health based limit value, while food and drinking water together do exceed it. Waternet itself arrives at about 85% through food. You have little grip on your groceries, but you do on your tap. Background on this group of substances is at PFAS and forever chemicals, and which techniques actually stop PFAS can be read on our PFAS page.

Being honest about the direction of travel: Waternet, together with other European water companies, argues for a total ban on PFAS, on the grounds that what is not in the source does not have to be treated out of it. That is a position we fully support. The company adds a commercial argument that is rarely quoted: removing PFAS costs millions of euros extra every year, and that bill ends up with residents.

What Waternet itself says about softeners

Here we have to say something that appears to go against our own interest, and we say it anyway, because it is true. In Amsterdam and the surrounding area you do not need a water softener. Waternet writes it in so many words, and it is right.

What is more, the water company corrects a marketing claim you often come across at softener manufacturers: their websites frequently state that water above 4 °dH is already hard. That is incorrect. Water is only hard from 12 °dH upwards. At 7.8 °dH Amsterdam sits well below that, and softening is not needed for your washing machine or dishwasher either.

Waternet adds one further argument that few people know: water that is too soft has drawbacks. With water that is too soft, detergent stays behind in your clothes and soap stays on your skin after showering, and that is bad for your skin. Taking even more limescale out of water is also very expensive.

What Waternet does not control

The responsibility of a water company stops at the water meter. Behind it your own installation begins, and in Amsterdam that is a more serious point than in most cities.

Lead pipes. Amsterdam has an exceptionally large stock of pre war housing, and Waternet has a dedicated page about it. Lead slowly dissolves in standing water, and the problem sits in the internal plumbing, which the water company cannot reach. What lead does and what can be done about it is at filtering lead out of tap water.

Standing water. Waternet advises flushing your pipes after a holiday or a longer absence before using the water for drinking or cooking. Water that stands in a pipe for days takes up substances from that pipe and warms up.

Hot tap water. Copper can dissolve out of hot water pipes and boilers, and taps can release nickel and chromium. Drawing cold and heating afterwards remains the advice; more about that at drinking hot tap water.

A boil water notice. After a burst main or after works, quality cannot be guaranteed temporarily. A water filter never replaces such a notice: the NSF 42, 53, 61 and 372 certifications cover chemical substances and materials, not microbiological purification. What to do in that case is at a boil water notice for tap water.

Do you need a water filter in Amsterdam?

No, not for safety reasons. Waternet tap water meets the Drinkwaterwet (the Dutch drinking water act) and the European drinking water directive, and the RIVM confirms that Dutch tap water is safe to drink. A filter shop that tells you the water in Amsterdam is no good deserves your distrust, and that goes for us too.

Why people in this area filter anyway comes down to three reasons, none of which is about safety.

• The source. Amsterdam makes its drinking water from surface water, and according to the RIVM that contains more PFAS than drinking water from groundwater. Waternet removes a great deal of it with activated carbon, but not everything, and the company says so too.
• Your own pipework. In a pre war Amsterdam building the risk is not in the treatment but in the last few metres. No production site can help you with that.
• Taste and the total. The RIVM advises bringing total PFAS intake down. You have more grip on that at your tap than in your diet, even if your starting point is already good.

The under sink filter that gives minerals back removes more than 100 contaminants from the water in five stages, including PFAS, microplastics, heavy metals, fluoride, nitrate and pharmaceutical residues, and then returns calcium, magnesium and potassium via Swedish Mineral Rock™. It is NSF certified to 42, 53, 61 and 372. At PureFilter we see that customers in Amsterdam mainly choose the combination of taste and peace of mind, and rarely limescale, because at 7.8 °dH they hardly have that problem.

A domestic osmosis system usually skips that final mineralisation step and then you are left with bare water; why that matters can be read at osmosis water, healthy or unhealthy. If you have a Quooker, it does not replace filtering: see water filter and Quooker. And if you do filter, replace on time, because how often you replace a water filter is a more important question than which brand you buy.

Comparison: softener, filter jug, osmosis or filter

The PureFilter Mineral+ costs €149.00 including the first filter. A replacement filter costs €65.00 and lasts about twelve months for 1 to 3 people, about six months for 4 to 6 people. The duo with two cartridges costs €115.00. Converted, that is less than one cent per litre. If you would rather not think about it, the Filterplan sends the cartridges automatically and on time for €48.00 or €86.00 per delivery.

Installation takes 5 to 10 minutes: you do not need a plumber, for connecting to the cold water pipe you use one pair of water pump pliers, and you change the cartridge later with the supplied key. Step by step, that is set out in the guide to installing a water filter. The full overview of our range of kitchen water filters is in the shop, and how the models compare can be read at the best water filter.

Frequently asked questions

Conclusion

Anyone who gets Waternet drinking water from the tap drinks soft water at 7.8 degrees of German hardness, made from river water and filtered through the dunes at Leiduin, or from seepage water from the Bethunepolder via Weesperkarspel. That is the same for everyone in the area, from Amsterdam to Ouderkerk aan de Amstel, so no postcode table is needed as it is with companies drawing on several sources.

The figures to remember: €1.18 per 1,000 litres in 2026 plus €0.44 tax and a €90.55 standing charge, all in about €275 a year at 100 cubic metres. That is a fall compared with 2025, and the €26.3 million cost of the organisational split is not included in it. PFAS is removed with activated carbon and the water stays below the statutory 100 nanograms per litre, while the stricter RIVM guidance value of 4.4 nanograms is advice and not law.

So in Amsterdam you do not filter because the water is bad, because it is not, and you demonstrably do not need a softener here. You do it because of the source, because of your own pipework in an old building, or because you want to decide the last few metres from water meter to glass yourself. And if you do it, keep to the same order that Waternet keeps in its own treatment: first take out what does not belong, then keep what you want to keep. Replace your filter on time, because that is the one thing that can make a filter worse than no filter at all.