Stiff new drought levy looms

UMGENI Water is imposing a stiff new drought levy on water prices immediately, to encourage millions of Durban and Pietermartizburg residents to use water more sparingly, because “the drought in Kwazulu-Natal is far from over”.

Presenting the water utility’s annual report at a briefing in Durban yesterday, senior officials confirmed that they had notified eThekwini, Msunduzi and other affected municipalities about the new drought levy/surcharge.

Though it was effective from September 1, it was not clear yesterday whether eThekwini and other municipalities would pass on the full cost increase to households – though the effects of the hike will only be visible in next month’s Durban water bills.

The exact scale of the levy for municipal customers also remained unclear, although Umgeni said the new levy would range between 64c and 94c extra per kilolitre of water.

While no final decisions have been taken, this could equate to a possible increase of somewhere between 10% and 16% for some customers, based on Umgeni’s current bulk water tariff of R5.90 a kilolitre.

The levy was being imposed to preserve dwindling water supplies in Midmar, Albert Falls and Inanda dams.

Umgeni Water chief financial officer Thami Hlongwa said the volume of treated water supplied to municipalities by Umgeni had already been cut by 15% and it had also urged customers to curb consumption voluntarily.

But because the region’s major reservoirs were still dropping, a decision had been taken to introduce the new levy (which would be discontinued once the drought ended).

While municipalities would be free to determine how the levy was passed on to domestic consumers, Umgeni said the intention was to penalise customers who failed to achieve savings of at least 15%.

“The more you use, the more you will pay – and the less you use, the lower the levy portion,” said Hlongwa.

Chief executive Cyril Gamede said: “If someone is using 100 units of water we have asked them to reduce by 15%. So, for the old 85 units you would pay the old tariff, but if you go into the new 15 (restricted) units you will pay extra.”

Sources have indicated that some municipalities were strongly opposed to the levy on the basis that it would create new administrative billing burdens, and also because any increases were seen as a political hot potato for newly elected municipal leaders.

Approved

Responding to queries yesterday, Durban’s municipal communications head, Tozi Mththwa, said: “The eThekwini Municipality has objected to the implementation of a drought levy, however the levy has already been approved by the national Department of Water and Sanitation.

“The levy was implemented from September 1, and our next invoice will include this levy. The city is currently finalising a report which will be presented to council on the matter. The recommendations by council will determine whether or not the city will also be implementing the same drought levy to customers.”

Meanwhile, Umgeni Water has warned that dam water levels in the Durban/Pietermaritzburg region are still dropping.

The water level of Albert Falls Dam, Umgeni’s largest storage reservoir, was now at just 24%. Midmar was down to 48%, while the Inanda Dam level had been raised to about 63% by pumping water there from Midmar, Albert Falls and the smaller Spring Grove Dam.

Steve Gillham, Umgeni’s general manager for engineering and scientific services, said: “We have seen some good rainfall in September, so everyone is thinking the drought is over and we can start using as much water as we like again.”

However, he said most of the heavy rain in the past three months had fallen along a narrow coastal belt rather than in the inland catchment areas.

The problem was exacerbated by the fact that it would now take much longer to fill up large, depleted dams that had last reached the 100% level two years ago. “The drought is definitely not over,” he said, noting that if Umgeni had not introduced 15% restrictions late last year, Midmar would have run empty by May this year, while Albert Falls would have run empty by July.

Gillham said the latest forecasts remained gloomy and it seemed unlikely that restrictions could be lifted unless there was a season, or two seasons, of above-average rain.

Officials denied that the levy was being imposed to make up for Umgeni’s lower bulk water sales. Gamede acknowledged that bulk water sales for the year ending June 2016 had declined by 2.5% compared to the previous year, but said the new levy was “not about making money – but about saving water”.

He said that as a result of drought, Umgeni had also incurred higher electricity costs to pump more water between storage dams, and extra costs for constructing four emergency pumping schemes in the central KZN region.