Regulation of water services

Water and sewerage services in South Australia are regulated and we strive to meet our legal and regulatory responsibilities on:

• health and safety
• water quality
• the environment and natural resources
• technical standards
• customer protection, pricing and service standards.

How we are performing against service standards

We publish our performance reporting quarterly and annually.

Regulation of customer protection, pricing and service standards

Our Plan 2020-24

Our Plan 2020-24 outlines our proposed investment for this four year period. Input from our customers and the community helped shape Our Plan.

ESCOSA reviewed Our Plan and conducted public consultation on our proposal before making its final determination.

For more information on our previous regulatory submission:

• Appendix A: Our legal and regulatory responsibilities
• Appendix B: Customers shaping the future
• Appendix C: Our Plan Customer Engagement
• Appendix D: Required Revenue
• Appendix E: Regulatory Rate of Return and Financial Viability
• Appendix F: Pricing
• Appendix G: KPMG audit of regulatory models
• Appendix H: ACIL Allen Demand model report
• Appendix I: Service standards and performance
• Appendix J: Service standards measures
• Appendix K:  KPMG Opex Benchmarking Report
• Appendix L: KPMG IT Benchmarking
• Appendix M: KPMG IT Plan review summary
• Appendix N: Capital Delivery
• Appendix O: 30 year asset planning

Legal framework

SA Water was set up by an Act of Parliament and is directly affected by five key Acts. This legal framework makes sure you have clean and safe water. It also helps to ensure:

• we are properly licensed and meet required technical standards (Water Industry Act 2012)
• we price our services fairly (Water Industry Act 2012)
• flood-prone areas are properly drained (Metropolitan Drainage Act 1935)
• eligible customers can access concessions. (Rates and Land Tax Remission Act 1986).

How the law makes sure you have clean and safe water

The Safe Drinking Water Act 2011 and the Safe Drinking Water Regulations 2012 make sure we test water regularly. We report the results to the Department for Health and Ageing and publish the results online.

This Act also makes sure that we:

• conduct regular audits
• have approved monitoring in place
• manage risk.

We’re a public corporation

The South Australian Water Corporation Act 1994 established SA Water as a statutory corporation that delivers water, wastewater and bulk water services for the people of South Australia. We are owned by the Government of South Australia.

We must comply with the Public Corporations Act 1993, which requires us to operate commercially and to seek to achieve a profit in delivering our functions unless otherwise outlined in our Corporate Charter.