South Africa Government : Water and Sanitation hosts Pricing Strategy Workshop

Water pricing strategy to sustain the water value chain

The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) hosted the water pricing strategy at the Hunters Rest Hotel in Rustenburg on 21 January 2016 in a bid to review the raw water pricing strategy and the norms and standards for tariff settings.

The review of the pricing strategy for water use charges and the norms and standards were published in the government gazette for public comments until 12 February 2016 and is warranted by socio-economic, environmental and other changes in the water sector.

As part of the consultation process, the North West Provincial Operations engaged in a consultation session with relevant stakeholders such as the Mining Sector, Irrigation boards, North West Provincial Governments, National Departments, Municipalities, Water Boards, SALGA and some of the water and sanitation forum members in the province with the intention to obtain inputs and comments on the pricing strategy and align it with the current development and strategies of the country which includes the National Development Plan, the Industrial Policy Action Plan and the New Growth Path.

The pricing strategy is a standardised framework that contains the objectives, procedures and methodology followed and applied in the determination of raw water charges and to ensure that tariffs are kept to a minimum by the department. The revision of the water pricing strategy will assist in sustaining the water value chain and also facilitate reform in the water sector to provide transparency and predictability to water users on how water will be priced to recover the costs of providing water and to incentivize the efficient use of water.

The revision of the norms and standards for tariff setting seeks to provide a common approach to pricing by all water services providers. The norms and standards are intended to standardise processes for setting tariffs throughout the water value chain and to enable effective evaluation and regulation of tariffs.

The public is called upon and encouraged to make comments on the pricing strategy and the norms and standards documents. The documents can be obtained through gazette notice number: 1154 of 2015 for Pricing Strategy and gazette notice number: 1153 of 2015 for the Norms and Standards, as well as downloaded from the department's web address:
www.dws.gov.za/projects/PERR/gazettes

For more information contact:
Sizani Moshidi, Acting Chief Director: Economic and Social Regulationon
Tel: [phone]
Cell: 082 874 2942

or

Katlego Mokaila
Tel: [phone]
Cell: 082 610 5311