Water leaks cost ethekwini Municipality R5m daily – Actionsa

ACTIONSA in ethekwini has reported that the ethekwini Municipality loses R5million a day in water leaks.

In a statement, ethekwini Actionsa caucus leader Alan Beesley said the party noted with great concern the water losses experienced by the ethekwini Municipality reaching up to an astounding 56% of all tap water it buys – mostly from leaks and water theft.

He said the municipality continued to lose an estimated 615 million litres of water a day.

“Based on ethekwini procuring water from the Umgeni Water Board at around R8.26 per kilolitre (kl), this means the City pays R1.86 billion a year for water that either leaks away, is stolen or is not charged,” Beesley said.

“Despite procuring water at R8.26/ kl from Umgeni Water, the municipality, however, charges its customers a considerably higher tariff.”

Beesley said according to a recent news article, domestic customers currently pay R27/kl for consumption up to 6kl per month, and a tariff of almost R32/kl for higher consumption.

“While water losses are expected and budgeted for, the current water losses of 56% far exceed the standard for municipalities of between 15% and 30%, and ethekwini’s current budget of 35%. Further, while some of the water losses pertain to unauthorised consumption, the vast portion of water losses are a direct result of real losses (leaks, breaks, overflows etc),” he said.

“These water losses are worrying for two main reasons. First, with the impacts of droughts, climate change and urbanisation, water losses are a critical issue. Water is a scarce resource, and should be treated as such.”

He said with the Umgeni Water Board capping ethekwini’s demand at current levels, should the water losses continue, residents and businesses will be faced with water shedding.

“Second, the high quantum of water losses has serious financial consequences on the municipality’s resources, which will ultimately impact service delivery to residents and businesses. In addition, ethekwini’s ability to undertake necessary repairs to its ageing infrastructure is curtailed.

“Furthermore, the water losses are exacerbated by the lack of qualified staff and suitable equipment to timeously repair water losses when they are detected,” Beesley said.

Beesley said Actionsa would once again take a lead in this important matter, and would be writing to the mayor and city manager requesting a detailed plan and timelines on how these water losses are to be addressed.