Integrating quality and cost of surface raw water: Upper and Middle Vaal Water Management Areas South Africa

摘要

The user-pays principle encourages use of a water tariff structure that incorporates pollutionnand/or depletion of a water resource because that water represents a capital resource base.nDevelopment of a tool that models variability of surface raw water quality in order to predictncost of treatment thus makes economic sense. This paper forms the backbone for an on-goingndoctoral study in South Africa’s Upper and Middle Vaal Water Management Areas (U&MVWMAs)nof the Vaal River (VR). Specific objectives of the overall research are; to carry out pollutant tracernhydrochemistry of specific reaches of the U&MVWMAs including producing an integratednecological functionality for the whole study area, and to develop a tool that models the variabilitynof surface raw water quality using surface raw water tariffs and water quality data for yearsn2003–2008. This paper concluded that downstream water boards (WBs) paid a higher waternresources management charge (WRMC) for more polluted raw water than upstream WBs. It wasnrecommended that a quality-cost model be incorporated at tier1 of the cost chain for waternservices to ensure fairness of service delivery and spread of burden to consumers.