MANDLA GADEBE of Norkem Park writes:
Water conservation is a responsibility that faces all of us, and I agree with the municipality in saying that it should be addressed.
Having said that, we need to question if the metro is applying water restrictions fairly and correctly.
In the article in Kempton Express, “We are not saving”, the metro will apply a 10% punitive charge to those who breach a limit of 25kl, including 6kl which residents receive free from the metro.
Businesses, on the other hand, will be charged 40% for failure to decrease consumption by an annual average of 15%.
Also read:
• Water restrictions – save or pay up
These punitive measures are also on the website of the metro. There are a few problems which, I think, as residents, we need to have properly addressed.
One, a blanket requirement to cut consumption by 15%. The problem with it is that some residents are already consuming water at the minimum level they can achieve. Now they will be punished for not being able to find a 15% cut in consumption somewhere in their water usage, despite their present efforts to save water.
Two, the circular on the metro website states the following: “This average will be based on their consumption over 12 months, from September 2015 to August 2016”. This means that the punitive action applies from 2015 into 2016.
Water wasted as it gushes from reservoir
In other words, it is applied retrospectively. If I remember correctly, we had water problems in September 2014, in areas like Germiston, but were told that it was the aging infra-structure, not a water shortage or drought.
I remember an explanation regarding a reservoir filling more slowly than it was supposed to, and it was going to be repaired. No mention of a drought was ever uttered.
Today, when the drought has worsened, the metro has woken up to that fact and is abusing residents with a punishment applied retrospectively. That is daylight robbery, if not stealing.
Three, the metro has a lousy way of communicating with residents. When it comes to most of these communications, we bump into them in the Kempton Express.
The call to reduce consumption by 15%, for example, which appeared in the Kempton Express, was announced by the National Department of Water and Sanitation in a Government Gazette notice published on August 12, 2016.
The metro took the decision on September 30, but decided their punitive action would be retrospective from 2015. In all of this, there was no letter sent to residents addressing the issue of water consumption.
The metro has, firstly, been slow to take a decision and, secondly, they did not communicate it directly to the residents.
The MMC for Water, Sanitation and Energy, Tiisetso Nketle, spok eabout this issue at Emperors Palace, at the gathering organised by the Press Club, to a selected few people who were invited to attend.
I wonder how many of them are residents of Ekurhuleni? The press release on the website is dated October 6. What does that have to do with September 2015? That is ill-communicated, pure and simple stealing.
Who is taking these decisions and what are the councillors, who are supposed to represent our interests, saying about it?
