The charperson of Lesotho Revenue Authority (LRA) Rorbet Likhang says the Water and Sewage Authority Company (WASCO) must deal with its inefficiencies or find alternative means to fund their capital projects instead of burdening consumers with annual tariff increases.

The inefficiencies include non-revenue water (NRW), operational inefficiencies, legacy costs and inability to connect more users among others.

WASCO recorded 40 percent of NRW in the 2017/18 financial year.

NRW is water that has been produced and is “lost” through leaks, illegal connections or metering inaccuracies and in other countries high volumes of losses negatively affect the utilities’ viability and water quality.

Earlier this year, WASCO filed for a 12 percent tariff adjustment on both domestic consumers and standing charges.

WASCO further requested a 15 percent adjustment for commercial consumers and standing charges.

However, Mr Likhang who attended the meeting in his capacity as a business consultant, said WASCO must stop financing its capital projects through revenue raised via tariff adjustments.