DWS and VOCMA propose raw water use tariffs/charges increase for 2025/2026 financial year.

The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) in collaboration with the Vaal-Orange Catchment Management Agency (VOCMA), has proposed new raw water abstraction tariff/charges for the new financial year of 2025/2026 for the domestic and industry water users, irrigation sector, and forestry in line with the Department’s Raw Water Pricing Strategy.

The Vaal-Orange Water Management  Area (WMA) comprises of the Vaal River and the Orange River. Geographically, this WMA cuts across Mpumalanga, Gauteng, North West, Free State, Eastern Cape, and Northern Cape provinces.

The Vaal-Orange WMA also plays a cross-boundary role through its impact on international water sharing. It has an impact on Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and eSwatini.

Gauteng DWS has revealed this during its three-day public consultation meetings with water user stakeholders regarding the proposed water charges, which took place between 23-26 July 2024 in Klerksdorp (North West), Bethlehem (Free State) and in Pretoria (Gauteng). The purpose of the consultations was to get inputs from different stakeholders within the water sector including municipalities before the final approval of the proposed charges by the Minister of Water and Sanitation as mandated by the National Water Act.

The proposed tariffs/charges were determined for the Vaal and Orange Water Management Areas (WMA) as follows:

Domestic and Industry: A tariff of 1.98 c/m3 is proposed for the Orange WMA for the 2025/26 financial year, which is an increase of 5% from the last years’ 1.89 c/m3. However, it was proposed that the tariff for the Vaal WMA remain unchanged at 3.11 c/m3 .

Irrigation Sector: It was proposed that the tariff for both the Vaal and Orange WMAs to remain unchanged at 2.64 c/m3 and 1.15 c/m3 respectively. The charges are capped by April Producer Price Index (PPI) of 5.1% for charges that exceed 1.5 c/m3 from the previous financial year as the Pricing Strategy.

Forestry: It was proposed that the 2.64 c/m3 tariff remain unchanged for both the WMAs, with the charge capped at R10/ha + PPI

These water resource management charges will be billed by VOCMA in accordance with section 57(2) of the National Water Act No 36 of 1998.

The Department of Water and Sanitation has also proposed tariff increases for the discharge of waste into water resources. This is determined according to the Department’s Waste Discharge Charge System (WDCS), aimed to promote sustainable development and efficient use of water resources, to promote the internalisation of environmental costs by polluters, and to encourage the use of water resources in a more optimal way and to recover costs associated with mitigating water quality impacts of waste discharge.

For both Vaal and Orange WMAs, a single tariff of 2.79 cent per cubic metre was proposed for the waste related water resource management charge, which will result in a decrease of 5% from the previous tariff for the Vaal WMA and an increase of 27% from the previous Orange WMA tariff.

The tariff increases will affect the main water users in the industrial, urban and mining as well as irrigation (agriculture) within the Vaal-Orange Water Management Area. The largest economic contributors in the Orange River regions are mining and irrigated agriculture sectors.

The tariffs will also affect the three main water boards in the domestic and industrial sectors, Rand Water, Magalies Water, Vaal Central Water, as well as municipalities in Gauteng, Free State, North West, Eastern Cape and Northern Cape provinces as key users in the water sector.

Issued by the Department of Water & Sanitation

For more information, contact Wisane Mavasa, Spokesperson for the Department of Water and Sanitation on 060 561 8935.