President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the National Water Resources Infrastructure Agency SOC Ltd Bill, this week.
In a statement, the Department said apart from grants to municipalities to address infrastructure backlogs and to enable municipalities to provide free basic water to the indigent communities, the water sector has to be self-financing through revenues from the sale of water.
The Department also said, the operation, maintenance and development of national water resource infrastructure is funded from the sale of raw water to industries, the water boards and municipalities.
Therefore, the development of a new national water resource infrastructure, is mostly funded from loans raised in the financial markets.
Revenue from the sale of water is used to pay off these loans.
Ownership of existing national water infrastructure assets, along with the revenue streams associated with these assets, are expected to be transferred to the National Water Resources Infrastructure Agency (NWRIA),once it is established.
The Association of Water and Sanitation Institutions of South Africa (AWSISA), a newly formed structure of water boards across the country, said it will be interesting how the Department deals with the Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority (TCTA) loans, once they are recalled by creditors, whose money is not with the new agency.
They also said the establishment of the agency lacks “strategic thinking.”
The SA Legal Academy, said once in force, the Act will establish a new state owned company responsible for water resources management and development.
Picture: Government news