In accordance with the EU Water Framework Directive, the national water services pricing policy framework provides for the recovery by sanitary authorities of the cost of providing water services from the users of these services, with the exception of households using the services for domestic purposes.
The policy framework requires full recovery of the cost of providing water services to the non-domestic sector by means of a meter based volumetric charge and the metering of this sector by December 2006. The framework does not provide for any special consideration or exemption of any classes of non-domestic users from the charging policy.