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.

2024-28 regulatory period

As part of the South Australian Government housing roadmap, the 2024-28 regulatory period will see a $1.2 billion investment to enable water and wastewater services to support the state’s housing growth. The costs will be shared by the government, industry and SA Water customers.

The unprecedented investment being made will enable us to build and upgrade large scale infrastructure that serves as the backbone of the network to support these growing communities.

How we plan

Every four years, feedback from our customers helps inform our investment proposal submitted to the Essential Services Commission of South Australia (ESCOSA).

Our Regulatory Business Plan for the 2024-28 regulatory period was developed with significant input from our customers and the community, and balances affordability with delivering the services our customers value and expect.

ESCOSA reviewed our proposal and provided a determination which establishes the customer outcomes we need to deliver and the allowable revenue we can recover from our customers. We then set prices each year to achieve the allowable revenue.

Service standards performance

We publish our performance reporting quarterly and annually.

Regulation of customer protection, pricing and service standards

The Essential Services Commission of South Australia (ESCOSA) is an independent regulator that issues water retail licences to water and sewerage service retailers, sets minimum standards to protect consumers, and carries out price determinations to ensure customers pay a fair and reasonable price for the services they receive.

Regulated price determination periods are for four years and require us to submit a proposal to ESCOSA outlining the revenue required to operate and invest in our networks to deliver the services our customers value and are willing to pay for. Our customers help us develop our proposals which also reflect our regulatory responsibilities.

Our Customer Charter was updated in May 2025 and can be downloaded here.

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.