What Is Water Cremation (Aquamation), and Where Can You Choose It?

Detailed Explanation

Water cremation is a genuinely new option for a body, and it comes with unfamiliar words: aquamation, alkaline hydrolysis, resomation (originally a brand name), water cremation. They all describe the same process, which uses warm water and alkali rather than flame to do in hours what natural decomposition does over years. Archbishop Desmond Tutu chose it after his death in December 2021, citing its environmental gentleness, and that brought it much wider attention. See the Cremation hub for the site's other cremation guides.

If you're comparing it with what you already know, it helps to have how flame cremation works fresh in mind. The two share more than they differ.

How the process works

• The person is placed, usually in a natural-fibre shroud, into a stainless-steel vessel. No coffin goes into the vessel, though a coffin can still be part of the service beforehand, and some families hire one for the ceremony.
• The vessel fills with a solution of water and alkali (typically potassium hydroxide) and is warmed. Depending on the system, the process runs from several hours up to most of a day, quietly, with no burning.
• What remains at the end is what flame cremation also leaves: the skeleton. The bone is rinsed, dried, and reduced to a fine powder that is returned to the family as ashes, typically a somewhat larger quantity than flame cremation produces, and paler in colour.
• The remaining liquid is sterile (the same compounds the body returns to the earth in any burial, with no tissue or DNA remaining) and goes to the treated wastewater system. Metal implants come out intact and are recycled, and pacemakers generally don't need removing beforehand, unlike flame cremation.

Wherever it's legal, the same kinds of safeguards apply as for flame cremation: certification of the death, the permits or authorisations the local law requires, one person at a time, and tracked identification throughout. The specific paperwork belongs to each country's system.

How it compares with flame cremation

• The farewell is identical. A full service, a committal, or a direct, unattended arrangement: the choice of ceremony is unchanged.
• The ashes decisions are identical. Keeping, scattering, interring, dividing, jewellery: see what you can do with cremation ashes.
• The environmental footprint is the main difference. Water cremation is commonly cited as using around a tenth of the energy of flame cremation, with no direct emissions from burning, which is why eco-minded families shortlist it alongside natural burial. Treat specific percentages as provider figures rather than settled science, but the direction is not in dispute. See what makes a funeral environmentally friendly for how this choice fits alongside coffin, flower, and other decisions.
• Timing is similar in practice. The process itself takes longer than a flame cremation, but ashes are still typically returned within days.

Where water cremation is legal and available

This is the real limitation, and it varies more than almost any other funeral choice. Laws on disposing of a body were mostly written with burial and flame cremation in mind, so each country (and in federations, each state or province) has had to decide separately whether and how to allow this process.

As of 2026, the broad picture is:

• United States: legal in around two dozen states, with a smaller number of operating providers. Some states allow it but have no facility.
• Canada: legal in several provinces, including Ontario and Quebec.
• Australia: legal and offered in several states, through a small number of providers.
• Ireland: available.
• Scotland: regulated from March 2026, the first part of the UK to do so, with facilities still being set up.
• England and Wales: not regulated and not available. The Law Commission published proposals and draft Bills in 2026 that would let governments approve new methods like this, but none has been approved.

Legal is not the same as available nearby. Even where the law allows it, facilities are few because each one needs premises, equipment, and approval to discharge the liquid to the local wastewater system. Where there's no local facility, some funeral directors arrange transport to one elsewhere. That's workable, but it adds cost and days, and for some families that trade-off decides the question.

Recording it as a wish

Because availability is patchy, water cremation is a choice worth writing down rather than assuming. If it matters to you, record it in your funeral wishes with a fallback ("water cremation if available; otherwise the simplest cremation") so your family isn't left guessing, or searching for a facility mid-grief.

How it works where you are

The law, the providers, and the practical steps differ enough between countries that each has its own page:

• Water cremation in Australia: which states regulate it, how few providers there are, and what to ask a funeral director.
• Water cremation in the UK: Scotland's 2026 regulations, and where England, Wales and Northern Ireland stand.
• Water cremation in the US: the state-by-state picture, and your price-list rights under the FTC Funeral Rule.

Things to Consider

• Distance may be the deciding factor. A strongly held preference can be honoured across distance, but weigh the transport cost and time against what the choice is really expressing. For many families, "the gentlest available option" is the actual wish, and a local alternative honours it.
• Faith positions vary. Some religious authorities have been cautious about alkaline hydrolysis, others untroubled, and Archbishop Tutu's choice is the best-known endorsement. If faith matters in your family, ask the relevant clergy rather than assuming either way.
• The "water" question deserves airing. Some family members find the process gentler than flame; others are unsettled by the liquid's disposal. Talk about it before booking, not after. Providers explain it well, and the FAQ above gives the plain version.
• Expect slightly different ashes. More volume and a paler colour than flame cremation, worth knowing when choosing an urn or keepsakes so the container isn't too small.

Common Mistakes

• Assuming it's illegal because it's unfamiliar. In many places it isn't. Ask what's available rather than ruling it out.
• Assuming it's available because it's legal somewhere. The opposite error. Legality is decided country by country, and often state by state, and even where it's legal the nearest facility may be a long way away.
• Treating provider environmental claims as precise. The energy saving is real and substantial, but specific percentages vary by system and study. Decide on the direction, not a decimal.
• Not writing the wish down. An unrecorded preference for an unusual option is the one most likely to be missed in the first blur of arrangements.