This paper aimed to estimate the monetary loss due to the water outage, focusing on residents who are one of the major users of water. The household loss from water outage was estimated using averting behavior method. A sample of 42 household representatives was collected, who experienced the water outage for one to four weeks after the 2016 Southern Taiwan Earthquake. To estimate the household expenditure for various water usages during the water outage, focus group discussion, and the individual survey were conducted. The losses then were calculated as the difference between the expenditure during water outage and the expenditure during a normal situation. The evaluation revealed that the household loss of a water outage day accounts for up to 15% of the household’s monthly income and has the mean of 1008 NTD (34 USD). The loss to income ratio was the highest in households with children and older adults. The loss of water outage in the residential sector can be adopted for cost-benefit analysis of water shortage mitigations including additional water sources, pipeline system enhancement, and water demand management.

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