National Pricing Strategy for Water Use Charges

The National Pricing Strategy for Water Use Charges provides a framework for pricing raw water use and waste discharge in South Africa. It introduces a hybrid tariff approach combining national and catchment-level charges to ensure cost recovery for water resource management and infrastructure while supporting social equity and environmental sustainability.

• The pricing strategy employs a 'Hybrid tariff approach' that combines national charges for specific sectors with scheme-based or catchment-level charges to balance affordability with cost reflectivity.
• Water use is divided into six categories to allow for targeted charging: Municipal, Industrial/Mining, High Assurance Use, Agriculture, Stream Flow Reduction Activities, and Hydropower.
• The Water Resources Management Charge (WRMC) is designed to fund activities such as resource studies, monitoring, and enforcement within Water Management Areas (WMAs).
• Infrastructure charges are split into four components: Operations and Maintenance, Depreciation/Refurbishment, Future Infrastructure Build Charge (FIBC), and Capital Unit Charge (CUC).
• The Future Infrastructure Build Charge (FIBC) is a national charge used to fund social infrastructure for rural municipal users and economic stimulus infrastructure for future development.
• The Waste Discharge Charge System (WDCS) follows the 'polluter pays' principle, using a Waste Mitigation Charge (WMC) to recover costs for mitigating the impacts of waste on surface water resources.
• To support transformation and equity, the strategy provides phased-in charges for resource poor farmers and tree growers, with no charges for the first five years after registration.
• The strategy introduces a system of multi-year charges, where sectoral charges are set for three-year periods to provide certainty for users and institutions.
• Indexation of charges is differentiated by cost type: the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is used for O&M components, while the Production Price Index (PPI) is applied to infrastructure-related charges.

APA

GreenCape (n.d.). National Pricing Strategy for Water Use Charges. https://greencape.co.za/assets/Sector-files/water/Department-of-Water-and-Sanitation-DWS/DWS-National-pricing-strategy-for-water-use-charges-2015.pdf

Chicago

GreenCape. National Pricing Strategy for Water Use Charges. n.d. https://greencape.co.za/assets/Sector-files/water/Department-of-Water-and-Sanitation-DWS/DWS-National-pricing-strategy-for-water-use-charges-2015.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=GreenCape |title=National Pricing Strategy for Water Use Charges |url=https://greencape.co.za/assets/Sector-files/water/Department-of-Water-and-Sanitation-DWS/DWS-National-pricing-strategy-for-water-use-charges-2015.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{greencapendnational, author = {{GreenCape}}, title = {{National Pricing Strategy for Water Use Charges}}, institution = {GreenCape}, url = {https://greencape.co.za/assets/Sector-files/water/Department-of-Water-and-Sanitation-DWS/DWS-National-pricing-strategy-for-water-use-charges-2015.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }