How Much Does Water Cost in Cape Town?
First 6 kl
VAT included
Above 35 kl
5.7× the first step
Fixed charge · 15mm
plus R56.66 sanitation
A month at 15 kl
water + sanitation, all in
In force: Level 1 — the no-restriction schedule triangulated. The City publishes a complete schedule for each of its 3 levels in advance and bills from whichever is declared. Annexure 4 calls the schedule taking effect on 1 July 2026 "Water wise (no restriction)". Annexure 6 publishes it as Level 1. The two documents use different names for what the evidence indicates is the same schedule.
What a kilolitre costs
| Step | Water / kl | Last year | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Step 1 (0 ≤ 6kl) | R25.85 | R25.09 | +3.00% |
| Step 2 (>6 ≤ 10.5kl) | R36.76 | R35.70 | +2.98% |
| Step 3 (>10.5 ≤ 35kl) | R61.37 | R55.75 | +10.08% |
| Step 4 (> 35kl) | R147.77 | R127.95 | +15.50% |
| Step (sewerage kl) | Rate / kl | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Step 1 (0 ≤ 4.2 kl) | R18.84 | +2.80% |
| Step 2 (>4.2 ≤ 7.35 kl) | R26.81 | +2.80% |
| Step 3 (>7.35 ≤ 24.5 kl) | R45.89 | +6.90% |
| Step 4 (>24.5 ≤ 35 kl) | R87.35 | +8.14% |
All rates include VAT, 2026/27, effective 1 July 2026 verified. Registered indigent households pay nothing on either ladder.
What your month costs
Water, sanitation and both fixed charges, stepped exactly as the City bills them.
Water
- Step 1 (0 ≤ 6kl)6kl × R25.85R155.10
- Step 2 (>6 ≤ 10.5kl)4.5kl × R36.76R165.42
- Step 3 (>10.5 ≤ 35kl)4.5kl × R61.37R276.17
- Fixed charge · 15mmR103.65
Sanitation · on 10.5kl
- Step 1 (0 ≤ 4.2 kl)4.2kl × R18.84R79.13
- Step 2 (>4.2 ≤ 7.35 kl)3.15kl × R26.81R84.45
- Step 3 (>7.35 ≤ 24.5 kl)3.15kl × R45.89R144.55
- Fixed charge · 15mmR56.66
Sanitation is charged on 70% of the water you use, capped at 35kl of sewerage — the City's own rule. All rates include VAT and are the schedule currently in force; if the City declares a restriction level, a different schedule applies. Refuse, rates and electricity are billed separately and are not in this figure.
The court case that rewrote your water bill
On 30 April 2026 the Western Cape High Court declared the City of Cape Town's fixed charges for water, sanitation and cleaning unlawful. Every household in this city has a different bill because of it, and almost nobody has explained why.
Two applicants brought it: the South African Property Owners Association and AfriForum. They challenged three charges introduced in the 2025/26 budget — a cleaning tariff, a fixed water charge and a fixed sanitation charge — all three calculated from the municipal valuation of your property. A full bench heard it: Judge President Nolwazi Mabindla-Boqwana with Judge Andre Le Grange and Judge Katharine Savage.
The finding, in substance, was that a charge calculated from what your property is worth is a property tax wearing a service charge's clothes. The court held the charges inconsistent with the Constitution, with national legislation governing municipal service fees, and with the City's own tariff by-law — a service fee is supposed to bear some relationship to the service, and property value does not measure how much water comes out of your tap.
The charges were set aside with effect from 30 June 2026 — prospectively. The court did not order anything about the roughly twelve months of payments already collected under the structure, which Brett Herron of GOOD has called a live question of unlawful enrichment. That question has not been resolved.
You can see the judgment in the City's own tariff book, and it is the clearest evidence on this page. The new domestic fixed charge by meter size shows "N/A" in the 2025/26 column — it did not exist last year. The old charge banded by property value shows real 2025/26 figures and "N/A" for 2026/27 — it exists no longer. One structure ends and another begins, in adjacent rows of the same document.
The charge that was, and the charge that is
Both columns are the same thing measured two ways: the fixed water charge plus the fixed sanitation charge, per month, VAT included. That is the pair the judgment moved, and the pair the crossover below compares.
Now · by meter size
Water + sanitation, 2026/27. New this year — the City's book shows no 2025/26 figure at all.
- 12mmR103.65 + R56.66R160.31
- 15mmR103.65 + R56.66R160.31
- 20mmR103.65 + R56.66R160.31
- 22mmR103.65 + R56.66R160.31
- 25mmR288.75 + R157.84R446.59
- 32mmR288.75 + R157.84R446.59
Almost every house has a 15mm meter, so almost every house pays the same.
Historic · by property value
Water + sanitation, 2025/26 only. Struck down; the 2026/27 column is N/A throughout.
- R500 001 up to and including R750 000R92.46
- R750 001 up to and including R1 000 000R92.46
- R1 000 001 up to and including R1 250 000R107.80
- R1 250 001 up to and including R1 500 000R122.45
- R1 500 001 up to and including R1 750 000R122.45
…rising to R1,109.52 at the top of 23 bands.
The two structures cross at R2 500 000. A 15mm meter now carries R160.31 a month. The last old band below that is R150.31 (R2 250 001 up to and including R2 500 000); the next one up is R182.90 (R2 500 001 up to and including R2 750 000). So a home valued at or below the crossover is paying more in fixed charges than it did, and one valued above it is paying less. Every figure in that sentence is on this page.
The cleaning charge was struck down alongside these two and was also based on property value, but it went back into property rates rather than onto a water bill, so it is not in this comparison.
Who pays more now, and the City's case for a fixed charge at all
The City rebuilt its budget around the judgment rather than around what it would have preferred, and the redistribution is real.
Fixed water and sanitation charges went back to meter size. Because the overwhelming majority of houses have the same domestic meter, the great majority of households now pay the same fixed charge regardless of what their home is worth — where previously the charge climbed with valuation. The cleaning charge moved back into property rates, which are value-based and lawfully so. To soften the effect at the bottom, the City raised the rates-free threshold from R450 000 to R620 000. And the 10.2% cut to residential property rates proposed in March became just over 2%, because the cleaning cost had to be absorbed somewhere.
Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis characterised the ruling's effect as raising fixed charges for many ordinary families while lowering them for more affluent ones. That is a political characterisation of a legal outcome, and it is worth reading as such — but the arithmetic behind it is not in dispute: a flat charge is regressive relative to a value-based one, and that is exactly what the applicants argued the law requires.
The City's case for having a fixed charge at all is separate and worth stating in its own terms. Councillor Dr Zahid Badroodien has put it this way: roughly 90% of the cost of supplying water and sanitation is fixed — reservoirs, pipelines, treatment works, the network itself — and those costs do not fall when you use less. The fixed charge recovers only about 17% of that fixed cost; the other 83% is recovered through what you use. On that account a fixed charge is not a revenue grab but an attempt to match how the money is actually spent.
Both arguments are legible and this page does not adjudicate between them. What it does is show you which one the law currently requires.
Three schedules, one declared at a time
| Water step | Level 1 · in force | Level 2 | Level 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Step 1 (0 ≤ 6kl) | R25.85 | R27.92 | R35.41 |
| Step 2 (>6 ≤ 10.5kl) | R36.76 | R45.42 | R60.19 |
| Step 3 (>10.5 ≤ 35kl) | R61.37 | R81.98 | R109.42 |
| Step 4 (> 35kl) | R147.77 | R229.75 | R463.02 |
Restrictions do not raise the ladder evenly. From the cheapest schedule to the dearest, the first step rises 1.4× while the top step rises 3.1× — the design keeps a basic household volume close to affordable and puts the whole weight of a restriction on the households using the most. The fixed charges do not change with the level; the City publishes one set for the year.
The tariff you pay depends on a decision, not on the dams
This is the question every Cape Town resident actually has, and the honest answer is more interesting than the answer people expect.
The City publishes a complete tariff schedule for every restriction level, in advance. Not a surcharge, not a multiplier — an entire separate schedule of steps and rates for each level. When a level is declared, both the rules and the price change together, and your bill is calculated from that level's schedule from that day.
What there is not, and this matters, is a published rule of the form "below X% dam storage, Level Y applies". The level is declared by the City, informed by hydrology, by the state of the six dams, and by the allocation the national Department of Water and Sanitation makes from the system. It is a decision, taken by people, with the schedules already written so that the decision can take effect immediately.
So we are not going to give you a dam-level-to-restriction-level lookup table. It would be the most linkable thing on this page and it would be invented. Our dam levels page takes the same position for the same reason.
What we can show you is the ladder itself, and it is steep. Compare the three published schedules and the design is obvious: the first six kilolitres rise gently from one level to the next, because that is the water a household needs to live, while the top step rises steeply. The top step is where the punishment sits. Restrictions in this city are not designed to make water expensive; they are designed to make excess expensive.
Common questions
How much does water cost in Cape Town?
The first six kilolitres a month cost the least, and the price climbs in four steps as you use more — the top step, above 35kl, is by far the steepest. On top of the water you use there is a monthly fixed charge based on your meter size, and a sanitation charge levied on 70% of the water you use. The calculator on this page prices a whole month from the City's current schedule.
What is the fixed charge on my water bill?
A monthly charge based on the size of your water meter, not on what your home is worth. Most houses have the same domestic meter and therefore pay the same fixed charge. This is new for 2026/27: last year the charge was calculated from your property valuation, until the Western Cape High Court declared that unlawful on 30 April 2026.
Why did my water bill change in July 2026?
Because of a court judgment. The High Court set aside the City's property-value-based fixed charges for water, sanitation and cleaning with effect from 30 June 2026. The City replaced them with charges based on meter size, moved the cleaning charge back into property rates, and raised the rates-free threshold from R450 000 to R620 000. The two structures cross at a municipal valuation of about R2.5 million: at or below that, a household is paying more in fixed charges than it did; above it, less. The page works that crossover out from the City's own two schedules.
How is sanitation charged?
On 70% of the water you use, not on what actually goes down the drain — the City assumes roughly seven tenths of metered water returns as sewerage. It is capped at 35 kilolitres of sewerage, which corresponds to 50 kilolitres of water. Sanitation has its own four-step ladder and its own fixed charge by meter size.
Do indigent households pay for water?
Registered indigent households pay nothing for water or sanitation consumption — every step on both ladders is zero — and are excluded from the domestic fixed charges. Households below the property-value threshold and registered backyard customers were also exempt under the old structure. Qualification is set out in the City's Indigent Policy and Tariff Policy.
What water restrictions is Cape Town under?
None. The City is in its water-wise phase, and the tariff schedule in force is the no-restriction one. The City publishes complete separate schedules for Level 1, 2 and 3 in advance, so that a declared restriction changes both the rules and the price immediately.
At what dam level do restrictions get declared?
There is no published rule of that form, and anyone showing you a dam-level-to-restriction-level table has invented it. The level is declared by the City, informed by dam storage, hydrology and the national Department of Water and Sanitation's allocation from the system. It is a decision, not a formula.
Is the City appealing the judgment?
We could not establish that an appeal has been filed. In early May 2026 the City said it was considering its options, and noted that lodging an appeal would suspend the order. What is on the record is that the City implemented the meter-size structure from 1 July 2026, which is what compliance looks like. If that changes, this page changes.
Methodology and sources
Every tariff figure on this page comes from the City of Cape Town's 2026/27 Budget, Annexure 6 — the tariffs, fees and charges book — read directly from the City's own PDFs rather than from any summary.
Which schedule is in force took work to establish, and the answer is worth stating plainly because two City documents use different names for it. Annexure 4, the post-judgment revision, says "Level Water wise (no restriction) water and sanitation tariffs are recommended for implementation from 1 July 2026". Annexure 6 publishes three schedules and calls them Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 — it never uses the phrase "water wise". The evidence that Level 1 is that schedule: it is the cheapest of the three, and restrictions raise prices rather than lower them; its average increase across 107 tariff rows is 3.46%, closest to the 3.9% average Annexure 4 says was applied, against 4.60% for Level 2 and 5.89% for Level 3; and the City has confirmed that Cape Town is in its water-wise phase with no restrictions in force. We have shown the reasoning rather than simply asserting the answer.
Two checks gate the data before it can be published. Every domestic fixed charge must satisfy the VAT identity — the excluding-VAT figure multiplied by 1.15 must equal the including-VAT figure printed beside it, to the cent. All fifteen meter sizes pass. And no two rows from the source documents may collapse onto the same meter key with different values, because the two documents group meter sizes differently and a silent collision would ship a wrong number rather than an error. Neither check is decorative; the extraction refuses to emit a seed file if either fails.
All rates on this page include VAT, because that is what a household is charged. Where a figure is excluding VAT it says so. Sanitation consumption is charged on 70% of measured water, capped at 35 kilolitres of sewerage, which is the City's own rule printed in the schedule.
The historic property-value charges shown alongside are the 2025/26 figures from the same book. Their 2026/27 cells are marked N/A by the City. They are shown because the old basis beside the new one is the clearest explanation of what the judgment did, and they are labelled historic everywhere they appear.
- City of Cape Town 2026/27 Budget, Annexure 6 — water schedule — the source we follow
- Annexure 4 — revised consumptive tariffs — the post-judgment revision
This page explains tariffs. It is not legal advice, and nothing here is a reading of what the judgment means for any particular household's past payments.
Read next
dams
How much water there is
The six dams, week by week — and why the restriction level is a decision rather than a threshold.
Read →electricity
The other City bill
Tariffs that moved on the same 1 July, in the same budget.
Read →rent
The whole monthly cost
Rent, electricity, transport, food — and now water — against one wage.
Read →