Swimming pool owners could soon be paying through their noses for the pleasure of a cool plunge in their back garden as the Makana Municipality considers stepped tariffs to decrease demand on its alarmingly dwindling water supply.
Swimming pool owners could soon be paying through their noses for the pleasure of a cool plunge in their back garden as the Makana Municipality considers stepped tariffs to decrease demand on its alarmingly dwindling water supply.
This was one of the solutions to the municipality's water crisis proposed by Chief Financial officer Jackson Ngcelwane in his report to the Budget, Treasury and IDP (BTI) Portfolio committee on Monday 13 December.
Ngcelwane had been mandated in August to investigate the possibility of introducing stepped water tariffs to reduce consumer demand, especially during the drought – a suggestion mooted at the Makana Municipality's water indaba in September. It emerged at the indaba that the municipality charges the same tariff for water across the board – whether to businesses or homes – and there was no monetary penalty to control high water usage.
After researching the drought strategies of other municipalities in the province, including Nlambe, Kouga and Nelson Mandela Bay, Ngcelwane discovered that the cost of water in Makana was "quite cheap"., Other municipalities levied different tariff scales, based on kilolitres used, and also had different tariffs for businesses and residential properties.
Ngcelwane's report recommends that the municipality implement such a stepped tariff – with additional variations for normal, critical and emergency periods – to encourage water saving. "Increasing water tariffs may not be favoured by all ratepayers," Ngcelwane wrote, adding that the municipality had recently acquired a R50 million loan to upgrade its water infrastructure.
This meant the water service must "within its limited budget" accommodate the loan repayment. Municipal Manager Ntombi Baart said the proposal needed to be supplemented information from technical services, such as the current water status and an indication of dam levels. She said a new tariff scheme would also require a consultation process. Ngcelwane suggested this was a working document and that it should be brought back for discussion once the requested information had been gathered.
