Lepelle Northern Water serves an area situated within the Limpopo Province. The area extends northwards from Hoedspruit and Sekhukhune in the south and westwards to Mogalakwena. The area as currently demarcated covers the entire Limpopo Province, save for Bushbuckridge and the western parts of the Waterberg District Municipality.

The primary activity of Lepelle Northern Water is the provision of water services to water services institutions. In certain areas the board supplies water services directly to consumers. During the year under review (2003) the board excelled in discharging its responsibility of potable water service delivery. A total of 53 million kiloliters of potable water was purified and sold compared to 47 million of the past year. This represents a 12.8% increase. A heartening growth was experienced in schemes that largely serve rural areas which enhanced our intent of 'Towards Water for All.' The industrial water has been declining over a period of time and the decline during the year under review was 6.7% compared to the past year. The decline occurred due to changing of operations of the mines in Phalaborwa. Various opportunities are being investigated with the view to optimising capacity of available infrastructure. Although the industrial tariffs are relatively lower than potable water, the industrial water provides vital economies of scale to the operations of LNW. The retail potable water business, although it showed a steady growth, has been insignificant at less than 1% of the total potable water sales. It is expected that as more villages become reticulated and operational, this business component will grow at a faster pace than the current rate. The overall unit sales of potable water grew by 6-year compound rate of 4.8% while industrial compound rate declined by 3.0% for the same period resulting in a consolidated compound growth of 1.3% for the period.