Rand Water to reduce water pressure in non-paying municipalities
Rand Water has confirmed that it will reduce water pressure by 20% in three non-paying municipalities in Gauteng and Mpumalanga.
Emfuleni in Gauteng, as well as Govan Mbeki and Victor Khanye in Mpumalanga all owe millions of rands to Rand Water.
Rand Water spokesperson Justice Mohale says they will start reducing water pressure from Monday.
“What I can confirm is that Rand Water has formally informed three of its customers that tomorrow on Monday, it’s going to reduce flow of water into their networks, and this is due to non-payment.
“Rand Water has in many occasions held or entered into payment and repayment agreement with these municipalities but have failed to honour those agreement. Even when they paid, they could not pay the entire amount billed for.”
Mohale added that the debt amounts to millions of rands.
“As we are speaking, Emfuleni local municipality owes Rand Water R9.94 million arrears, and Victor Khanye municipality in Mpumalanga is on arrears for R185 million and Govan Mbeki in Mpumalanga is on arears for R314 million.
“This has been Rand Water’s last resort and we have formally informed them and we have sent letters to the municipalities and Human Settlement, Water and Sanitation to inform the minister of this action.
“MEC of Human Settlement, Urban Planning and Cooperative Governance in Gauteng and the MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs in Mpumalanga, we have informed them that should they not pay this amount, we are going to reduce the flow of water with 20%.”