Rand Water, a state agency that provides water services to 19-million people, says it has cut new capital expenditure in its 2017 financial year to R2.5bn from R3.3bn a year earlier based on commitments by municipalities to be more effective in water-demand management. This is despite its own expectation of exponential population growth in the main metropolitan areas it services. The revised budget was based on the assumption that a 15% reduction in volumes was the new sustained volume base that would grow an average of 1.75% a year over the next five years, CEO Percy Sechemane said in Rand Water’s 2017 annual report, which has just been released. Rand Water has a five-year rolling forecast for capital expenditure of R20bn that may vary between 20% and 30%. It expected its capacity to be about 6.6-billion litres a day by 2030. On June 30 2017, its total debt stood at R4.4bn (2016: R4.4bn), which at 33% was below the 50% threshold under its agreement with the government. The utility ...
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