Water distributors have announced a 10.7 per cent water price hike on south east Queensland communities yesterday.

Queensland Urban Utilities announced yesterday sewerage and water rates for Somerset, Scenic Rim, Lockyer Valley, Ipswich, and Brisbane will increase by around $107, or 10.7 per cent annually.

However, the most affected are the residents of Redcliffe, who will get a price increase worth around $550 per year.

Queensland Urban Utilities claims that the water rates increase is necessary to cover the $9 billion water grid of south east Queensland.

United Retail Federation's Scott Driscoll argues that the local governments should object to the price hike.

"It's a bitter pill to swallow [from] bureaucrats that are essentially out of touch with mainstream Australia," Driscoll said.

"These are people who are on massive incomes and quite frankly who are able to inflict these lethal injections on communities such as Redcliffe from a distance where they really don't feel the sting that everyone else on the street feels."

An MP from the state opposition also says that a water price increase will harm the vulnerable parties.

Ian Rickuss, MP of Lockyer Valley, comments that the price hike is part of a chain of cost-of living increases for Lockyer residents.

He remarks that the hike will impact the pensioners the most.

"They've got no ability to cope with all these price rises," Rickuss said.

However, the State Government will still rebate pensioner's expenses worth up to $100 per year.

On the other hand, water distributors claim that they should not be blamed for the sharp price hike.

Unity Water's John Blake comments that everyone seems to have forgotten about the recent drought, the drained dams, and all the expenses shelled out for the construction of a desalination plant and the water grid.

"We have short memories sometimes because it was only a short time ago that the majority of south-east Queensland was under very tight water restrictions because the dam storage levels were down to 16 per cent," Blake said.

"It was an extraordinary difficult time and we had to respond as an industry to make sure that we could secure future water supply."