Ilembe water credits gone with the wind

As if being without running water for three weeks was not enough, Stanger residents were horrified to discover, when the water came back on, that their prepaid water credits had vanished.

When the water service was restored on Friday, November 20, residents who thought they had saved some money by not using any of their prepaid water credits for three weeks, were still without water.

When checking their meters they discovered that all their prepaid credits had gone.

Selvan Naidoo is one of the Stanger residents who was apparently told by Ilembe district municipality that there was nothing they could do about the loss of credits and that he would just have to buy new credits.

“They told me that air went through the pipes when we had no water and that made our credits disappear,” said Naidoo.

He said this proved that people who have received unusually high water bills may not actually have used that much water.

“Our billing system is flawed and it shows that the meters cannot be trusted to give accurate readings,” said Naidoo, who added that he had been having problems with incorrect meter readings for years.

“I have had a piece of vacant land for about two years and have an outstanding water account of R40 000 plus interest that Ilembe expects me to pay,” said Naidoo.

He said he was still being billed even after having taken two different Ilembe water technicians out to the property on two separate occasions and being told by both that he should not be billed because there was no reading.

The Courier approached Ilembe district municipality for comment but they have not replied.