Cut-off deadline issued for municipal water debt

The Department of Water Affairs and Sanitation has passed the buck to municipalities for ensuring that people have access to water when it is cut off on December 8.

The department and at least 30 municipalities have been locked in battle for more than two years over a R10bn debt owed to it.

It has given notice to the municipalities that their bulkwater supply would be cut off unless they paid their bills in arrears by two months and no longer. About 73% of the R10bn debt was in arrears by more than 60 days.

Of the R10bn debt, R3.9bn was owed to the department’s Water Trading Entity and R6.8bn to SA’s various water boards.

“What are we to do?” asked departmental spokesman Sputnik Ratau. “This has been going for two years. We have court orders against the municipalities, but they don’t pay.”

He said the department was constantly held accountable under the Constitution, but no one holds the municipalities accountable for their constitutional obligations.

Under section 27 of the Constitution, citizens have the right to sufficient water and, under the Municipal Systems Act, water services are the responsibility of local government. Funding is provided by the national department and municipal revenue collection. In 2001, free basic water became national government policy, amounting to 40 litres a person daily for a family of five or 25 litres for a family of eight.

Ratau said the department did not want to cut off people’s water and that it was fully aware of the health implications of Day Zero, but that the department itself needed the revenue to provide bulk-water services.

In May, Water and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane told Parliament the department was owed R2.7bn by water boards and municipalities. The department also had its own debt issues, although Ratau said it had arrangements with its creditors and service providers.

The department was cited by the auditor-general for irregular expenditure of R2.5bn.

The citing relates to a Giyani Bulk Water Supply intervention undertaken by the department in the Mopani District Municipality in Limpopo.