Africa-Press – Lesotho. Lesotho Electricity and Water Authority (LEWA) has responded to the tariff application increase submitted on December 16 2021 by Water and Sewerage Company (WASCO)
for the financial year 2022/23. LEWA Board Chairman Relebohile Mosito revealed to the media on Thursday that the board has decided and approved volumetric water tariffs to be increased by
5.67% for all water consumers and standing charges be increased by 9.17% for all consumer categories except band A effective April 1. Mosito further said other charges such as connection fees remain unchanged. WASCO
is also allowed M215.61 million revenue for water production and distribution, as opposed to M296.20 million it had proposed. “In reviewing WASCO’s application, the authority considered the short and long-term consequences of
under-recovery by the utility,” he said. He said in the short-term, under-recovery by WASCO will result in unnecessary cost-cutting that might lead to poorer services and less investment in maintenance
and necessary upgrades but in the long-term, it will result in increasing costs of services as the utility will remain dependent on older and less productive
equipment. He indicated that as part of the review process and considering the Government restrictions on public gatherings on account of Covid-19 pandemic, the
authority had requested stakeholders to present their written views, facts and evidence on the tariff application via print, electronic media and the District
Administrators Offices across the country from February 9th 2022. “Comments submitted by stakeholders were considered in the review process leading to the tariff approval,” he said.
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