eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda has unveiled a number of measures aimed at curbing electricity and the high water losses experienced in the city.
During a council meeting on Monday, Kaunda detailed the measures the city is taking to address the losses.
Kaunda told the councillors: “As a city, we are working tirelessly to address issues of water and electricity losses. Most of our water losses are caused by ageing infrastructure, illegal connections and the recent floods.”
To address this situation, he said, the municipality is implementing the following remedial actions:
- installation of pressure reducing valves (PRVs)
- reservoir inlet and outlet metering
- meter connection housing projects
- installation of meters in the informal settlements
- investigating properties with zero consumption
- metering historically unmetered housing project
- replacement of domestic water meters.
The DA in eThekwini recently submitted a motion calling for the council to be dissolved. It cited problems in water and electricity as among the reasons the municipality should be dissolved.
The party said the eThekwini municipality faces huge amounts of losses due to illegal connections, burst water pipes and water leakages. “The city currently records a water distribution loss of 55.61% when compared to a benchmark norm of between 15% to 30%. Of the 88% overall debt collection, 66% pertains to water alone, thus only 66% of the 45% water that is supplied is actually billed.
“Water meters not being read leads to inaccurate billing. In October alone 519 553 meters remained unread, of which 71 149 have not been read for more than a year, meaning 71 149 customers are getting inaccurate bills every month.”
For electricity, it said 118 053 meters were not read in October 2023 while more than 14 426 meters had not been read for the year, meaning over 14 426 customers have been getting inaccurate meter readings.
The Mercury