Joburg sneaks in water hike hours after polls
Barely 24 hours after the local government elections, the City of Joburg has announced stringent level-2 water restrictions and punitive water costs.
|||Johannesburg - Barely 24 hours after the local government elections, the City of Joburg has announced stringent level-2 water restrictions, accompanied by punitive water costs.
The release was sent on Thursday, but backdated to August 1.
An average family, which uses 30 kilolitres of water a month, faces an up to 20 percent increase.
The city’s spokesman for group finance, Kgamanyane Stan Maphologela, said that following other Gauteng municipalities that had already implemented water restrictions, the council will now be putting measures in place to curb excessive water usage. This, he said, was an attempt to ensure that all South Africans don’t waste and use water sparingly.
“As per the announcement for water restrictions declared countrywide in November 2015, the city, taking into consideration that South Africa is a water-scarce country, and the persisting lower-than-normal rainfall since the beginning of last year, will apply water restriction tariffs to domestic customers from August 1,” he said.
Maphologela said the city had stepped up its efforts to curb high water usage and enforce a culture of responsible usage.
“The threat of water supply is increasingly becoming a real issue to all South Africans, particularly in our country where water is a scarce resource. With the continuing high water usage, we have to find ways to introduce measures to control consumption.”
The city has urged its customers to reduce their water consumption to avoid level-2 restrictions, whereby it will apply a water restriction tariff to those who have higher water usage.
The level-2 water restrictions, section 44 (3) of the Water Services By-law, states that all consumers are forthwith compelled:
* Not to water and irrigate their gardens from 6am to 6pm daily.
* Not to fill swimming pools with municipal water.
* Not to use hosepipes to wash vehicles and paved areas, etc.
Maphologela said that in the event where a level-2 water-restriction implementation is implemented, the city will apply the water restriction tariff on the upward scale, starting with users consuming more than 20kl up to those using more than 40kl a month, with the cost increasing as the usage increases.
Average household water usage is around 30kl. “The message is that those who use more water would pay more, therefore we urge customers to exercise water-saving tips,” said Maphologela.
He added that those customers who were consuming less and practising water-saving tips won’t be affected, as every household also qualified for 6kl free water a month, which would be taken into account for all domestic customers.
The DA has questioned why the announcement was made only after the elections. “This looks like a trap. If such changes were to be imposed, communities should have been consulted. Residents cannot continue to be punished like this,” the party said.
anna.cox@inl.co.za
@annacox
The Star