Leaks costing East Cape towns and cities millions
Huge water losses are draining Eastern Cape municipal coffers of millions of rands.
In 2017/2018, municipalities in the province lost almost half their water through leaking, decrepit infrastructure and illegal water connections.
This was revealed in a legislature response report by finance MEC Oscar Mabuyane.
However, despite this loss, municipalities still improved their income from water sales.
Mabuyane said municipalities lost more than R554m in potential revenue in 2017, little less than the R569m lost in 2016.
In Nelson Mandela Bay, R170m worth of water was lost in 2016, while in 2017 it lost water valued at R169.7m.
The metro made R660m in water sales in 2016, and improved this by R101m, making R761m in 2017.
Buffalo City lost 40.9% of its water supply in 2015/2016, 34% in 2016/2017 and 32% has been lost so far in 2017/2018.
This translated into losses of R216m – R116m in 2016, and R100m in 2017.
Despite this, in 2016, Buffalo City earned R494m from water sales, and that figure rose to R551m in 2017.
Mabuyane’s report was a response to questions posed by DA MPL Bobby Stevenson.
Stevenson said something drastic needed to be done to prevent water losses.
“This is basically money down the drain,” he said.