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Water charge to increase by 57% |
Tuesday, 23 February 2010
SA Water's Copper Coast water augmentation charge will rise from $5,927 to $9,310 per residential allotment - a 57 per cent increase.
The decision by SA Water, which was signed off by Minister for Water Security Karlene Maywald, will make residential land on the Copper Coast more expensive as developers have no choice to pass the cost on.
The augmentation charge was supposed to pay for future infrastructure between the holding reservoirs at Paskeville and the Copper Coast towns to accommodate projected increased demand through residential growth. SA Water has now been asked to explain where the money already collected from the augmentation charge has been spent.
"I do accept the position of the 'user pay' principle that has been applied for some time, but high augmentation charges often are the cost that makes it impossible for some development to happen, Mr Griffiths said.
Steven Griffiths wrote to Minister Maywald last year requesting information about water augmentation charges within the Copper Coast and again in February asking the Minister to provide as a matter of urgency the details involved and the reasoning behind the decision to increase charges by 57 per cent. Minister Maywald has failed to acknowledge both letters.
"While all residents understand the importance and value of water, the augmentation charges are the cost of the infrastructure required to deliver the water to new developments and this very large increase, a 57 per cent jump, is impossible to just blindly accept.
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