Impending hike in water prices is actually a good eye opener

THE decision to raise water prices in Singapore has, to no one's surprise, drawn sharp reaction - from calls in Parliament to defer the hike to a protest gathering at Hong Lim Park last Saturday that poured cold water on the government's rationale for the move.

A university professor who came out in media interviews in strong support for the impending 30 per cent price increase (over two years from July 1) received hate mail ("I absolutely detest you") variously charging him with being "unfeeling" and "disgusting", among other things. Such is how people feel, probably about price hikes in general, but perhaps particularly when the commodity in question is as existential as water - and we're talking about a 30 per cent jump. Not 3 or 10 per cent but a seemingly stiff 30 per cent.

To be sure, there is never a good time to raise prices, but now would seem a particularly bad time to do so, especially for essential goods, with the job market in a bit of a funk amid economic uncertainty. Latest figures show the unemployment rate at a six-year high, with more people laid off in the last quarter of 2016, and jobseekers taking longer to find work. Notably, 75 per cent of those made redundant in Q4 last year were the PMET group of professionals, managers, executives and technicians - ie who may fall outside the lower-income households that are the prime recipients of the government's utilities rebates. Yet - and we say this as a financial daily that tracks closely concerns about rising business and living costs in Singapore - it would seem that the ire over the upcoming hike in water prices is, to an extent, a case of, to turn the phrase around, missing the trees for the forest.