DWS owed R14.6bn in water bill by SA municipalities

Municipalities across the country owe water boards R14.6 billion, the department of water and sanitation (DWS) revealed on Thursday.

According to the department, R9.2 billion of the money owed is older than 120 days, which is four months of failing to pay water bills.

“The biggest culprit among the defaulters, according to DWS, is the Matjhabeng local municipality. The council owes the board more than R4.5 billion of unpaid water services,” departmental spokesperson Sputnik Ratau said
on Thursday.

Ratau said North West municipalities owed more than R1.5 billion. He said the main offender was the Ngaka Modiri Molema district municipality. The Emfuleni local municipality, according to Ratau, owed Rand Water over R1.1 billion. He said the money was inclusive of the current account if R700 million, which was owed for over 120 days.

Ratau said the Mangaung local municipality owed Bloem Water Board more than R700 million, inclusive of the current account of R400 million, owed over a period of 120 days by the end of November 2021. He said it was important for municipalities to pay their water bills as this was hindering the speedy delivery of water services
to communities.

During a three-day meeting between the department, the Northern Cape provincial government, water boards and municipalities across the province, Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu said the department was going to review all the water boards and that the Sedibeng Water Board was going to be the first.

“The decision to look into the review of water boards was purely aimed at speeding up the rate of service delivery,” Mchunu said.

“It is also aimed at enhancing a continued partnership between the end users, members of the community, water boards and the department. The idea is also meant to have water boards across the country play a central role with regards to municipality delivering services.”

ASLSO READ: ‘We walk 3km’: Water woes still plague Limpopo

In turn, municipalities complained that although they would have wanted to work hand in glove with the department to fasttrack the delivery of water to the end users, they did not have the capacity to deliver such a service.

Mchunu accepted that although SA was a water-scarce country, the biggest challenge faced by the sector was delivering water to households. Meanwhile, the protracted Giyani bulk water project in Limpopo still remained incomplete, eight years after implementation.

Three water and sanitation ministers, Nomvula Mokonyane, Gugile Nkwinti and Lindiwe Sisulu, all failed to put the project to bed. The much-talked about project was initiated by former president Jacob Zuma and commissioned by
Mokonyane. Its budget increased from R502 million to R3 billion. It missed completion targets three times, leaving 55 Giyani villages in dire need of water.

The project was supposed to finish in 2017 but failed and was extended to 2018 and the implementing company, Khato Civils, abandoned the project after contractual problems emanating from unpaid invoices.

“The project is now at 67% completion and is expected to be finished by December 2022,” said Ratau in a statement.

– news@citizen.co.za