March 1, 2004
By Lucky Sindane
THE City of Johannesburg is to introduce an innovative scheme to tackle water services debt and encourage the installation of prepaid meters in Soweto, Alexandra and Ivory Park.
The scheme, approved at the February council meeting, will see consumers being encouraged to pay monthly for their municipal services. These payments will be monitored over the next 36 months. Once a culture of payment has been established those that have run up huge bills for their water services will receive a rebate - consumers will have 36c out of every rand owed written off over the next seven years - provided they continue to pay off their debt.
The council would continue to look at similar incentives in other areas "to ensure improved payment for municipal service and the delivery of quality services in a sustainable manner", spokesperson Mbangwa Xaba said.
Alongside the regular payments, consumers will also be encouraged to have prepaid water meters installed. The installation of such prepaid meters is part of a seven-year programme - Operation Gcin'amanzi - set up by Johannesburg Water, the City's water and sanitation utility.
Billing consumers in the township areas for municipal services such as water usage has been beset with problems. For the last decade townships in the greater Johannesburg have been billed on an estimated consumption, rather than on actual consumption, said Xaba. He pointed to the "poor condition of the water supply network, a lack of accountability for actual consumption and the low rate of debt collection".
"The total outstanding water and sanitation debt at the end March 2003 for these areas (Ivory Park, Alexandra and Soweto) totalled R878-million. This amounts about R6 700 per house, and due to low collection rates this amount will rise every month," said Xaba.
Vast amounts of water were also unaccounted for, he added. Soweto accounts for one third of the total bulk water purchased by Johannesburg Water from Rand Water. The people of Soweto consume some seven billion litres of water a month - the same as the total amount of water used every week by the entire city. The water bill for Soweto, Alexandra and Ivory Park is about R156-million a year.
Johannesburg Water recently launched Operation Gcin'amanzi, a five-year multi-million rand project to upgrade Soweto's decaying water infrastructure. The purpose of the project is to ensure a reliable and affordable service to every household in the area. One aspect of the project is the installation of prepaid meters. The first phase of this programme has already begun, with construction underway in Phiri.
Media reports alleging the City of Johannesburg had written off a water debt of R878-million in the three townships were inaccurate and misleading, he added.
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