Cape Town to double price of water in two years

The drought is about to whack Capetonians in the pocket‚ doubling the price of water in the next two years.

The City of Cape Town’s draft budget‚ tabled at Wednesday’s council meeting‚ proposes a 27% rise in water tariffs from July 1.

And it will get worse in 2019‚ with a 30.45% increase‚ followed by a 22% rise in 2020/21.

The net effect is that the price of water will more than double between July 1 this year and July 1‚ 2020.

Xanthea Limberg‚ the mayoral committee member for water‚ waste and energy‚ told a media briefing the drought was to blame.

“Much of the increased tariff will be about recovery from 2017/18 [when revenue from water reached only 73% of the target as consumers slashed usage]‚” she told a media briefing before the council meeting.

“It is also about funding augmentation schemes to adapt to the impact of the drought.”

With consumer price inflation at 4%‚ other proposed tariff increases all outpace it: rates at 7.2%‚ electricity at 8.14%‚ sanitation at 26.96% and refuse removal at 5.7%.

The mayoral committee member for finance‚ Johan ver der Merwe‚ said all the increases were based on the city council’s CPI projection of 5.5% for 2018/19.

The council's total budget for the new financial year is R49.1-billion.