Municipal Water Bill Calculator (South Africa)

On a conventional meter in the City of Johannesburg, sanitation is a flat monthly charge banded by erf size, not by how much water you used. At 20 kL on a 500 m² stand that sanitation line alone is R774.48, plus a R107.74 demand levy that also does not move. The water blocks on top of that are steep once you leave the free first 6 kL, so a household that thinks it is paying for water is often paying more for the sewer and the levy. Johannesburg Water's own tariff book is the source; this page just applies it. Prepaid-meter households in Joburg are billed differently, see the conventional versus prepaid section above.

On the same 500 m² erf and the same 20 kL a month, a conventional Joburg meter bills about R1,437.35 and a prepaid meter about R837.33, a gap of about R600 a month. At 10 kL the gap is about R727. Almost all of that is sanitation: conventional sanitation is a flat erf-banded charge, prepaid sanitation is volumetric. The water blocks also differ. This is a City of Johannesburg tariff-table difference, not a usage difference, and it does not apply in the other metros on this page, whose 2026/27 books do not split prepaid and conventional water rates.

The City of Cape Town bills three lines that this page models: water in four rising blocks (the first 6 kL is charged, it is not free for an ordinary household), sanitation as a deemed sewerage volume of 70% of your metered water, capped once water passes 50 kL, and a fixed monthly charge of R160.31. At 15 kL that comes to R1,000.00 in total. Cape Town's Think Water calculator estimates usage from household habits; this page takes the kilolitres off your statement and prices them.

City of Tshwane (Pretoria, Centurion, and the rest of the metro) zero-rates the first 9 kL of water for an ordinary household, then steps up through six water blocks. Sanitation is volumetric, but the assumed share of water that reaches the sewer falls as usage rises, so a heavy user saves less on that line than on water. There is also a large fixed monthly charge of R311.70. At 15 kL the total is R644.04, and R311.70 of that is the fixed charge, still almost half the bill.

No, not nationally, and not even across these six metros. Johannesburg and Tshwane zero-rate their first block for everyone (Joburg's first 6 kL, Tshwane's first 9 kL). Cape Town, eThekwini (Durban), Ekurhuleni and Buffalo City (East London) charge the first 6 kL in full for an ordinary household; Ekurhuleni and Buffalo City reserve the free first block for registered indigents. At 6 kL, Cape Town already bills R150.30 for water before sanitation and the fixed charge, and Durban bills R314.40 for water. Free Basic Water is a national policy aimed at indigent households, not a universal 6 kL gift.

It depends on your metro. Johannesburg (conventional meter) and Buffalo City bill sanitation as a flat monthly charge banded by the size of your erf, not by how much water you use, so cutting water back saves nothing on that line. Cape Town, Tshwane, eThekwini and Ekurhuleni bill it volumetrically, tied to your metered water, but Tshwane, eThekwini and Ekurhuleni assume a shrinking share of your water reaches the sewer as usage rises, so a heavy user's marginal sanitation saving is smaller than their water saving. Only Johannesburg on a prepaid meter scales sanitation the same way water does.

No. This page is water and sanitation only. A rates bill needs your municipal valuation, which most people do not have to hand, plus a rebate ladder that differs by metro, and refuse is billed by bin count or erf size rather than water use. Both are different enough that folding them into this page would make a wrong answer on one line harder to spot in a total you can no longer check against your own statement line by line. Your rates and refuse lines still belong on your bill; this page just does not compute them.

Each municipality sets its own block tariff, and the blocks are not the same width or shape. A metro with a low first block and a steep top block rewards frugal use far more than one with fewer, wider steps. There is also no single national sanitation rule: some metros scale it with water, some do not, and the ones that do use different discharge assumptions. Picking your own metro on this page, rather than reading a national average figure, is the point.

Each metro's water and sanitation figures were read directly from that municipality's own council-approved tariff annexure or tariff book for the current financial year, the same primary sourcing used for the Rainwater Tank and Garden Watering Calculators, which share this page's tariff data. Ekurhuleni's figures were additionally cross-checked against two independent press reports on the year's increase. Every metro's exact source is named in the breakdown once you select it.

Nelson Mandela Bay and Mangaung are left out on purpose rather than guessed. Nelson Mandela Bay bills by average daily consumption rather than a monthly total, and how a month's usage actually prices under that method is not confirmed from the municipality's own tariff book, so a number here could be wrong by close to a third. Mangaung's water tariff is sourced, but no sanitation figure could be found at the same standard as the other six. Both will be added once that sourcing is resolved.

One kilolitre (kL) is 1,000 litres, the same as one cubic metre, and it is the unit every South African municipality bills water in. Your statement will show either your meter reading in kL directly, or the current and previous readings with the difference already worked out as your usage for the period.

Only for Johannesburg on a conventional meter and for Buffalo City. Those two charge sanitation as a flat amount banded by your stand size, so that is the one number that changes their sanitation line. Cape Town, Tshwane, eThekwini, Ekurhuleni and Johannesburg prepaid bill sanitation from your water use instead, which is why the field only appears for the two that need it.

Yes. Every rate shown is the VAT-inclusive figure from the metro's own tariff document, the same figure that appears on your statement.