Outcry over City of Cape Town’s high water tariffs
|Published
Sky-high municipal accounts of some Capetonians have sparked a massive outcry over the City’s alleged refusal to lower water tariffs. File picture/
Cape Town - Sky-high municipal accounts of some Capetonians have sparked a massive outcry over the City of Cape Town’s alleged refusal to lower water tariffs.
Ratepayers’ associations and civil society activists are now demanding the City reviews its latest decision by reducing the water tariffs.
“We are also calling for the fixed water levy to be removed because there is no longer a drought in the City,” said Cosatu’s provincial secretary, Malvern de Bruyn.
He said the union federation was outraged about the latest incident in which the City has refused to lower the water tariffs despite the dam levels being above 95%.
De Bruyn said Cape Town now had the highest dam levels since 2014 but the City still did not see it necessary to reduce the water tariffs.
He claimed that the City was charging water tariffs based on the drought levels of 2018/2019.
“Consumers are already suffering and struggling to survive because of the economic impact of Covid-19 and then you have a City that is just adding more fuel on the fire,” he said.
Stop CoCT founder Sandra Dickson said during the water-scarce period, the City was quick to take away the 6Kl free water allocation, raise water tariffs by hundreds of percentage points and instate a tax on water.
Dickson said the City should be able to adapt to manage periods of water abundance and water scarcity.
Strandfontein Ratepayers’ Association chairperson Mario Oostendurp said it seemed as though the City was not prepared to decrease the tariffs.
Mandy da Matta, the chairperson of the Table View Ratepayers’ Association, said there was no logical reasoning to continue with the increased tariffs to stop excessive water usage.
Good Party secretary-general Brett Herron said the City council should reassess the water tariffs as well as the water plan.
Desalination was widely regarded as too expensive and that augmentation would continue to inflate water costs to the consumer.
However, earlier this week, Mayoral Committee Member for Water and Waste Xanthea Limberg said the City was selling 30% less water than before the drought, but was facing additional costs that came with increasing their resilience.
The City was approached and after more than six hours it said it needed more time to respond. By deadline it had not done so.
Earlier this week, Mayco Member for Water and Waste Xanthea Limberg said the City sold 30% less water than before the drought, but faced additional costs.
Cape Argus