Two floods later, Nelson Mandela Bay metro still clings to drought’s punitive water tariffs

Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality has urged people to boil their water before drinking it or using it for cooking. Frank Joubert primary school installed taps and tanks connected to school roof gutters for drinking water. (Photo: Deon Ferreira)

By Estelle Ellis

28 Nov 2024

Two floods and hundreds of millimetres of rainfall since the drought in Nelson Mandela Bay has officially been broken in September 2023, the metro still clings to punitive water restrictions and sky-high tariffs for ratepayers.

Nelson Mandela Bay councillor Dries van der Westhuyzen is not a man who gives up easily. This week he doggedly filed a third motion at the Nelson Mandela Bay Council to have drought-triggered punitive and sky-high water tariffs dropped.

His previous motions were accepted by Speaker Eugene Johnson’s office but never considered by council. His last attempt was brushed off with a promise that the city manager would send a response – which has not happened.

Van der Westhuyzen said this week it is nothing but a money-making scheme.

“There is no emergency… the current water restrictions are unjust, immoral, and an unnecessary burden on residents,” he said. “The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) confirmed that it has not imposed punitive water tariffs on Nelson Mandela Bay. This further highlights that the municipality’s refusal to remove these tariffs is unnecessary and an intentional decision to continue draining cash-strapped consumers.”

Read more: Nelson Mandela Bay counts flooding costs — three dead, 3,000 displaced, electricity and sewage systems down

The metro’s senior director of water and sanitation, Barry Bartin, has publicly claimed that the DWS enforces the metro’s water restrictions. However, the department said this week that it simply was not true that it was keeping the emergency tariffs in place.

“What we have requested is that the municipality needs to deal with the issue of non-revenue water by implementing the water conservation and demand management plans. While these include restrictions, they also include dealing with illegal connections, water leaks and revenue collection systems as well as high water consumption,” department spokesperson Wisane Mawasa said.

Read more: Better maintenance could have reduced flooding in Nelson Mandela Bay — business chamber

According to its latest annual report the metro is losing about R250-million in non-revenue water due to leaks and illegal connections. In September a new system using pressure-reducing valves was installed to reduce water losses and allow for improved meter readings.

Van der Westhuyzen said that since November 2023 Johnson’s office had “refused to table” the DA’s motion to debate the punitive water tariffs and again blocked the motion during a council meeting last week.

During last week’s meeting (14 November) Johnson had simply dismissed attempts to have the motion heard, saying “there was a response sent” to Van der Westhuyzen. But she had ignored requests to have the response made public, saying: “We will follow up with councillor van der Westhuyzen.”

nelson mandela bay dams water The Kouga Dam has spilled several times since October 2023 after good rains in the Eastern Cape broke a debilitating drought in Nelson Mandela Bay. It is still 99% full. (Photo: Anneli Young)

But Van der Westhuyzen said on Thursday he never received any response from either the Speaker or the city manager’s office, nor did the Speaker’s office follow up with him.

Despite three of the four dams supplying the metro either overflowing or being at capacity the metro persists in enforcing Part C of the punitive water tariffs, which are meant for emergency situations.

The metro faced a dire emergency and almost ran out of water as an eight-year drought pushed water systems to the limit and resulted in the decommissioning of one dam.

Read more: Tough restrictions push back Nelson Mandela Bay’s Day Zero, but trouble still lies ahead

Read more: Nelson Mandela Bay walks tightrope of a wing and a prayer – and then finally … rain

Only 40% of the residents in the metro are ratepayers and they have now launched a petition to the Speaker’s office to have the punitive water tariffs lifted.

The high tariffs are charged even though a lower tariff was used to draw up the budget. The neighbouring Kouga Municipality, which gets most of its water from the same dams as the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, has confirmed that it has already dropped its water tariffs to a lower rate. It is understood, however, that Nelson Mandela Bay has not lifted the restrictions it imposed on the Kouga Municipality either.

Motion 1

The first motion was submitted on 10 October 2023, after the meteorological drought had been broken in the region, by DA councillor Van der Westhuyzen, asking that paying consumers be moved to a more affordable water tariff.

This was the first time that all of the metro’s supply dams but one were full. The combined level of the main supply dams was 73% and all the main boreholes are in full operation and thus supplement the supply with 27Ml per day.

Since then ample rains in the metro have caused several floods in low-lying areas, yet there has been no decision to move ratepayers and consumers from punitive water tariffs.

The DWS had lifted water restrictions on all the main water sources, with the exception of the Impofu and Churchill dams.

The metro’s water demand was within 10% (on average) of the seven-day average of water produced.

Back then, Van der Westhuyzen also highlighted that the metro’s collection rate was suboptimal and said a reduction in the water tariffs would help to increase this rate.

“The increase of the collection rate when the tariffs were reduced from Part D to Part C substantiates this statement,” he said.

Since then ratepayers have been paying Part C tariffs.

“The financial situation of the vast majority of the metro’s residents is under severe strain. It is submitted that it is immoral to keep the present punitive tariffs whilst the water situation has improved significantly,” the motion read.

The motion requested that the tariffs be reduced to Part B because the situation was still critical but not an emergency.

Nothing happened.

nelson mandela bay water e. coli diarrhoea During the drought, the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality urged people to boil water before drinking it or using it for cooking. Frank Joubert Primary School installed taps and tanks connected to the school’s gutters for drinking water. (Photo: Deon Ferreira)

Motion 2

A year later, with no progress since October, Van der Westhuyzen submitted another motion to the Speaker’s office.

By now the combined level of the main supply dams was 78%.

“The erroneous statement that our restrictions are imposed by the national department has been debunked,” the councillor said at the time.

“The metro’s collection rate is still suboptimal and a reduction in the water tariffs will assist in the increase of this collection rate.”

More significantly, he pointed out that the 2024/25 budget had been compiled using the tariffs in Part B and not the more expensive rates that residents were paying.

Again, the motion was not decided on by council.

Motion 3

Van der Westhuyzen has filed a new motion since there is a council meeting in December. The combined levels of the main supply dams now stands at 85%, with all the dams except for Impofu (58%) full.

All the main boreholes are operational, providing a reported additional 27Ml per day.

“Most importantly there is no limit on Nooitgedagt that provides more than 60% of our water demand,” the new motion points out. The Nooitgedagt water scheme brings water from the Gariep Dam to Nelson Mandela Bay. The Gariep Dam is currently 71% full.”

The DWS has lifted the water restrictions on all the main sources, with the exception of the Impofu (40%) and Churchill dams (5%).

Van der Westhuyzen added a report from the budget and treasury directorate that high punitive water tariffs are having a detrimental impact on the collection rate.

“Punitive water tariffs are about a shortage of water and not a shortage of budget,” he said.

He said on Thursday they will have to wait and see if the motion will be heard.

Municipal spokesperson Sithembiso Soyaya said the decision to lift the punitive tariffs must be made by the council and “a motion must be filed by a councillor”.

Department called on to help

Member of the provincial legislature Retief Odendaal has now turned to the DWS to help lift the punitive tariffs.

“Nelson Mandela Bay residents have been enduring water restrictions and the imposition of punitive water tariffs for the better part of eight years already. Unfortunately, notwithstanding your extensive relaxation of water restrictions last year on the Kouga and Loerie Dam Scheme in the Kouga River, the Churchill and Impofu dams in the Kromme River as well as the Groendal Dam in the Kwazunga River, the local authority has refused to relax the punitive water tariffs and restrictions imposed on residents,” Odendaal wrote in a letter to the department.

“Whilst the prerogative to relax water restrictions and the imposition of punitive tariffs lies solely with NMB Council, it is important that the Department of Water and Sanitation takes note of the significant risk that exists by council not following suit in the relaxation of water restrictions after the extended drought was broken.

“It is common knowledge that Nelson Mandela Bay region goes into fairly regular cyclical droughts. Key to managing these droughts is the buy-in of the public to reduce consumption behaviour. There is, however, an increasing public outcry over the continued imposition of punitive water tariffs whilst the current status of dams in the [region] is looking exceptionally well, with at least three of the dams (Kouga, Groendal and Churchill) having overflowed at least twice in the last year.

“One of the key risks in the municipality refusing to relax water restrictions/punitive water tariffs after the drought has essentially been broken, is that it erodes the trust relationship between residents and the municipality in respect of all drought-related matters.

“We have seen that our residents have already suffered increasing ‘drought fatigue’ over the last couple of years and in my opinion it has just gotten worse after two consecutive good rainfall seasons.”

Daily Maverick is still awaiting comment from the metro. DM

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Motion 1

Motion 2

Motion 3

Department called on to help