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Water Services Act, 1997 (Act No. 108 of 1997)

Notices

Norms and Standards for Tariff Setting, 2024 - effective 1 April 2026

4. Financial Ring-Fencing of Water Services

 

(1) A WSA may ring-fence its water supply and sanitation services from other non-water related functions of the WSA and account separately for the water related services.

 

(2) A WSA which supplies bulk water services to other Water Services Authorities must account separately for the bulk water supply services from the general retail water services.

 

(3) Water boards are required in terms of section 42 of the Water Services Act to ring-fence their primary activities from the other activities and account separately for such.

 

(4) If a WSA performs the functions of a water service provider (i.e. an internal mechanism), it must manage and account separately for those functions.

 

(5) A WSA must publish a water services charter which is consistent with its policies, by-laws and other regulations. The water services charter must contain at least the conditions of supply of water and sanitation services  and the conditions of payment for such services.

 

(6) A WSA may divide its area of jurisdiction into schemes or water supply areas where these areas or schemes are supplied from different sources or are not hydrologically interconnected and may budget separately for each scheme or water supply area.

 

(7) A WSA must when allocating its water and sanitation revenue prioritise investments in water and sanitation over functions other than water supply and sanitation services, until such time as all persons within the area of jurisdiction of the WSA have been provided with at least a basic level of water services.