City of Cape Town ups price of water to reduce consumption

7th February 2018 By: News24Wire

The City of Cape Town on Tuesday announced its "the more you use, the more you pay" water prices in a bid to reduce water consumption during the drought.

According to Deputy Mayor Ian Neilson, the new tariffs on a total monthly bill (Level 6 tariffs) (including VAT) for non-indigent persons are:

6 kl       R 179.58
10.5 kl  R 415.56
20 kl     R 1 555.56
35 kl     R 6 685.56
50 kl     R 20 365.56

Indigent people get up to 6kl free per month.

"In line with Level 6 drought measures, the February 2018 water and sanitation accounts of our water users will reflect a tariff increase," said Neilson.

He said the city makes no profit on water sales.

"We will still cover the cost of basic water for our indigent residents, but for the rest of our water users, these tariff increases are unavoidable. The highest users will face the greatest increases," Neilson said.

The increase comes as the city is in an "unprecedented situation" as it tries to reduce water consumption due to the drought, and to keep pushing Day Zero back.

Day Zero is the day people will have to start queuing for a ration of 25 litres of water each, because there will not be enough water available to put through the municipal water system.

It is currently thought that it will occur on May 11 after a slowdown in agricultural water use provided a reprieve.