Crackdown on water defaulters succeeding

‘Light at end of the tunnel’ as R250m of R10.7bn gets recovered

WATER and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane’s crackdown on defaulting municipalities not paying their bulk water service delivery has netted her department and water boards more than R250 million.

Mokonyane had said she would cut off municipalities that failed to pay the outstanding debt of R10.7 billion.

But following discussions with defaulting municipalities, the water boards and the department, an agreement was reached on payment plans.

Mokonyane said yesterday that even though they may not get the R10.7bn all at once, there was light at the end of the tunnel, with settlement payment plans by 25 of the 30 municipalities.

She said since their discussions last week, R213m had been paid by municipalities to the water boards and R55.5m to the department by last Friday. She said 11 municipalities managed to pay last week.

They had also received commitments from other municipalities that they would start making payments.

Mokonyane said the commitments to pay which they had received thus far amounted to R300m. This was in addition to the money that had already been paid.

“We anticipate that over the next few days this figure should increase as more municipalities have made commitments to pay the agreed amounts towards the old debt and to settle their current debt, which is invoices not older than 30 days,” said the minister.

Mokonyane said there were municipalities that had raised disputes on the amounts owed and there were discussions to resolve the disputes.

She threatened to cut water supply to municipalities that had failed to pay the department billions after last Friday’s deadline.

Of the 30 defaulting municipalities, 11 managed to pay more than R250m to the department and water boards by last Friday’s deadline.

However, the department would not tolerate municipalities that refused to pay, warning it would begin with restricting water supply to municipalities that failed to pay or make arrangements with the department.

“We must make it clear that the department will not cut water supply but may throttle the pressure at which we supply bulk water to ensure that citizens are provided with the minimal allocation of water,” said Mokonyane.

“South African standards relating to a ‘basic’ water supply are defined as 25 litres of water per person a day. This is sufficient to promote healthy living,” she said.

This amounted to 6 kilolitres of water per household each month.