Rand Water warned consumers on Wednesday to expect a double-digit increase in clean water prices, reported the SABC.

"We will have to increase our rates because... input costs are increasing and the fact that you have energy, you have chemicals, you have labour costs increasing," the utility's CEO Percy Sechemane said.

"We will have to make sure that this now gets passed through because now we also have infrastructure challenges on our side that we need to look at," he added.

According to the SABC the increase was believed to be around 16 percent. It added that there were imminent government plans to charge water providers, like Rand Water, more for the resource.

Sechemane said R5-billion was needed over the next five years to refurbish the old infrastructure at Rand Water.

On Wednesday Rand Water released its annual report, indicating an increase in revenue from R4.1-billion last year to R4.3-billion this year.

Sapa