Nelson Mandela Bay residents are in for a hike in fees for water consumption after the Council approved water penalties on Thursday.
The move came as the drought continued to bite hard and taps in parts of the Metro began to run dry.
On Thursday the Municipality said that "the Western parts of Port Elizabeth" were out of drinking water because "the high demand on the system had resulted in too much water be abstracted from the Loerie and Kouga Dams".
Nelson Mandela Bay Mayoral Committee member for Infrastructure and Engineering, Councillor Annette Lovemore, said the decision to introduce punitive measures, came after they received a fifth warning from the Minister of Water and Sanitation to cut back on water usage.
"The restrictions are exactly the same as they currently are and have been for the last three months. Which means that residents cannot use their hoses to wash down paving, cars, water gardens etc. There are always exceptions because we know there are circumstances where it is impossible for people to adhere. There might for instance be a place where people might have to use additional (water) so people can make application for exemptions," she told Algoa FM News in a wide-ranging interview Friday.
"Applications for this can be sent to waterrestrictions@mandelametro.gov.za. What was put in place yesterday (Thursday) was punitive tariffs which means that the more that you use the more that you're going to pay very unfortunately.”
“It means for an average household that used up to 400 litres a day you will not pay more at all. Above 400l a day, between 400 and 800 litres a day, you will pay a certain tariff and above 800l a day you are going to pay an additional amount," Lovemore added.
"We have added additional recommendations which were accepted in Council yesterday (Thursday). Some of them are for instance, that we sell water to the Kouga Municipality, so they must impose restrictions on their municipality. We have decided that we will go into the top 20% of top water users, with respect to schools we know there are massive leaks at schools."
"We are going to install valves in schools so that we can shut off the water when there is no educational activity taking place. Now, during the school holiday for instance, after children go home from school after sports.”
“We have exempted certain categories from the punitive tariffs and those for the moment are commercial, industrial and agricultural. We've asked the City Manager, Johan Mettler, to investigate equitable ways in which we can ensure the viability of business and agriculture, certainly with ensuring that they save water but certainly without threatening their viability with punitive tariffs," she said.
"So, the City Manager has been asked to report back to Council at the end of January on his recommendations there. What we've added to the recommendations that were not there previously is that we, as the Metro, must work aggressively to ensure that we reduce the number of leaks and to ensure that we reduce the turn-around time in attending to leaks. We are currently receiving 3000 complaints a month at our call centre and our turn-around time, sadly, is in the region of 15 to 24 days to attend to leaks," Lovemore said.
"We have also resolved that Budget and Treasury will identify funding so that we can get the necessary resources on board to bring that turn-around time to less than five days. We cannot just be asking residents to be saving water and not have the resources in place to save water ourselves."
"The last and perhaps the most contentious recommendation that was approved yesterday is that the City Manager investigate possible mechanisms to restrict the water supply to poor households, to those households who are registered for the assistance to the poor programme. They currently receive an 8kl allocation of water for free. The average usage in those households is 19.1kl per month."
"So, we are looking at the possibility of restricting that water, once the allocation is utilised, to a trickle feed. That recommendation the City Manager will have to come back to Council with. Again at the end of January and Council will then consider that."
The ANC in Nelson Mandela Bay is particularly incensed by this proposal. The party organised a mass march to Council yesterday where a memorandum containing a set of wide-ranging grievances was presented to the Speaker of Council, Jonathan Lawack.
ANC councillor, Andile Mfunda, also railed against the need to punish the poor, saying the previous ANC government had put a water master plan in place to deal with the water crisis.
"Council, (previous ANC-led Council) approved the Water Master Plan in 2006, 2007 or 2008. We have got a Master Plan here in the city which I think the leadership of this Metro coalition interrogate first before jumping for water restrictions," he said.
