Rand Water slammed for punishing ELM consumers
Organised business has accused Rand Water of collective punishment and human rights abuse against paying Emfuleni consumers after the State entity imposed a water blockade by reducing water pressure and flow in the region last week.
The Golden Triangle Chamber of Commerce (GTCoC) has slammed the pressure reduction as a human rights violation and said RW should “wake up” and get the national Government to pay for municipal water debt exactly as was being done on municipal electricity debt to Eskom.
The GTCoC has now demanded that RW lift its destructive collective punishment steps against Emfuleni to avoid permanent damage to water infrastructure once pressure is restored.
Rand Water last week reduced water pressure by up to 20% in Emfuleni for non-payment on the R1 billion debt owed to it by the Emfuleni Local Municipality (ELM) – leading to economic and residential havoc in especially the region’s townships and lower-lying areas.
“It is obvious as it was obvious with Eskom that bulk municipal debt is too big for individual municipalities such as ELM and that RW must get national Government to pay as was done by Eskom,” said GTCoC President Jaco Verwey.
Verwey said it was pointless to continuously raid ELM coffers with attachment orders or apply mindless pressure on the community as this completely disrupted business and service delivery.
Although RW was at liberty to apply legal remedial steps against ELM for debt, it was simply too disruptive and unjust to take collective steps which would harm businesses and residents who did pay, and also harmed infrastructure.
Ageing water pipes and infrastructure will be further damaged when pressure is restored, experts have said.
“It is beyond stupid to kill the goose that lays the golden egg. The GTCoC demands that RW immediately reverse its blockading and pressure-reducing steps before permanent economic and infrastructure harm is caused,“ Verwey said.
Rand Water last week reduced water pressure by up to 20% in Emfuleni for non-payment on the R1 billion debt owed to it by the Emfuleni Local Municipality (ELM) – leading to economic and residential havoc in especially the region’s townships and lower-lying areas.
With business and community anger against RW growing, many businesses, informal and formal, have reportedly been forced to close doors due to lack of water caused by insufficient water pressure and flow.
“Rand Water is now applying collective punishment to Emfuleni customers who do pay their bills, even if those bills are often completely inflated anyway due to ELM’s thumb-sucking estimation system which seems specially-built for corruption,” said GTCoC President Jaco Verwey.
Verwey singled out water distribution infrastructure and its up to 60% losses in potable water as the real culprits that both RW and ELM should address if they were serious about improving revenue and reducing debt.
Ironically, ELM and RW are already in the process of developing a Special Purpose vehicle (SPV) partnership model where Emfuleni municipal Water and Sanitation infrastructure and revenue will be jointly managed.
Eskom and ELM are also far advanced in developing an agency agreement to manage electricity infrastructure and revenue after the GTCoC last year obtained a high Court order forcing the two entities to collaborate on a plan to pay Eskom direct for power.
Rand Water did not respond to requests for comment.
