Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Water Levy) (20232024 Rainfall Season Exemption) Notice, 2024

The Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development has exempted commercial farmers from the ZINWA water levy for the 2023/2024 rainfall season. It applies to all commercial farmers irrigating with raw water abstracted from dams and rivers.

Two levies are covered. The first is the levy on direct abstraction by a permit holder or agreement holder, which is US$1,00 (or the ZWL equivalent) per megalitre of water permitted to be abstracted per quarter. The second is the levy on storage of water in works that require a permit under section 32(4) of the Water Act [Chapter 20:24], which is calculated by applying a factor of 1.06 to the yield.

The exemption is backdated to 1 November 2023, the start of the rainfall season, so farmers who have already paid for that period have a basis to query it.

There is no fixed end date. The exemption runs until the Minister decides it is appropriate to review the levy, which he must do by a further statutory instrument. In practice that means farmers should watch for a subsequent instrument rather than assume the exemption lapses on its own.

Note that the exemption is limited to the water levy on raw water for irrigation. It does not touch permit fees, other ZINWA charges, or water supplied for non-irrigation use.