THERE is a WhatsApp message doing the rounds suggesting a 25 per cent increase in rates to finance the 1.6 km new pipe required to solve the 26-plus leaks in Niagara Road, Waterfall.
Sadly, the mentality of the human race is that every problem can be solved with a tax or fine.
Firstly, some years ago the entire water system in this area was replaced with plastic piping. (I still have off-cuts of the pipe that were abandoned on my verge.)
Sadly the 1.6km in question seems to have been omitted.
Last year, the rate value of my home went up by 31.5 per cent.
The market value went up by 22.8 per cent but my senior citizens’ rebate remained exactly the same.
Reality is that a few years ago we had the first 300 litres of daily water “free”.
Today my municipal bill indicates that the first 200 litres of daily water costs only R18.47/kl (including VAT).
However, the municipal records show that of the R6.5 billion water bill a year that they give away R915 million of “free” water a year.
Between the water wastage (at R18.47/kl to us) and the cost of the 26-plus repairs the 1.6km of piping could have been replaced three times over by now without any further increase in rates.
It is time that we, as “paying” ratepayers woke up to the fact that we are being “milked” dry besides the fact that the Municipal Water Policy will result in Durban ending up in a similar position to Cape Town and like the Minister for Water Affairs said just last week about the Cape Town problem, “No amount of money will solve the problem now.”
It is only a matter of time before we join Cape Town and this very unequal municipal financial system brings about a total collapse of the infrastructure.
CA Brockway
Crestview
