The Department of Water and Sanitation is in the process of recovering R10.7 billion in debt that has been accumulating for five years due to non-payment by municipalities.
The spokesperson for the department, Sputnik Ratau, says they are facing a number of challenges with regard to five municipalities that are currently facing water restrictions until they make payment arrangements with the department.
At this stage, they are unsure whether the problem lies with the municipalities not paying the water bill to the department or consumers not paying their water bills to the municipalities.
The affected municipalities are Ngaka Modiri Molema (in the North West), Msukaligwa (Mpumalanga), Madibeng (North West), Mafube (Free State) and Maluti-a-Phofung (Free State).
“There are a large number of consumers who actually are paying the municipalities, such as your businesses and individuals. There are also challenges in terms of capacity to spend the money municipalities receive. The other challenge is the capacity to collect the money from consumers,” says Ratau.
Ratau says another challenge the department is facing is municipalities that do not maintain their infrastructure that has an impact on the volume of water that is consumed by a particular municipality.
He says they hope with further engagements with National Treasury and the South African Local Government Association (Salga) some of these issues could be addressed.
Water restrictions of 20% have been implemented. He says if they do not put implementations in place, it will have a negative impact on the Water and Sanitation Department and how they operate and how they dispatch their constitutional mandate.
A total of 25 of the 30 municipalities have made the necessary payments to the department.
Ratau says he hopes the indebted municipalities will follow the example of the 25 municipalities and come to the party to make plans to pay their debt.
Josca Human/OFM News
