Rehoboth on strict water diet

Rehoboth’s water supply was restored after the town council made a N$6.3 million payment to NamWater last week. The town had been without water for close to 48 hours because of non-payment.
The Rehoboth town council owes the water utility about N$36 million in historical debt, plus an outstanding current account of approximately N$2 million, which will be settled under a strict repayment plan.
NamWater said a bulk pre-paid water meter will be installed in the town, which will let the council buy water on a monthly basis and eliminate the risk of non-payment.
Once the town’s water credit is exhausted, the supply will only resume once a top-up payment is made into the pre-paid electronic system.
This is the second such system instituted by NamWater, following the implementation of a bulk pre-paid system at Katima Mulilo three years ago.
“In future they have to first pay up and then use the water they paid for until it is finished. The water will be cut automatically if they don’t pay again,” NamWater spokesperson John Shigwedha said on Thursday.
He said NamWater’s actions last week were the result of years of failed negotiations with Rehoboth to pay its outstanding water debt and settling its monthly accounts.
“The Rehoboth town council has not honoured our agreements in the past. The trust relationship has broken down,” Shigwedha said.
On Wednesday last week, NamWater closed most taps in the town apart from hospitals and other emergency services, following years of wrangling over unpaid bills despite a number of negotiated payment plans that were set up in consultation with the town council.
“We have been urging and coaxing them to pay their water bills for years. We have actually been very lenient with them. And then we would sign new agreements, and then they would ignore us. It’s a very bad relationship. And in the meantime the outstanding debt accumulated,” Shigwedha said.
Fed up with the non-cooperation, NamWater sent a letter to the town council on 9 August, warning that the town’s water supply would be suspended last week unless an agreed percentage of the historical debt plus outstanding current bills were settled.
Shigwedha said despite the seriousness of the situation, “they never responded to the letter. Only when we suspended the water supply they rushed to meet with us. But they never even acknowledged receipt of the letter.”
Emergency meetings between NamWater and the town council ensued on Wednesday while residents fumed, asking why they were not warned of the shutdown and demanding to know what happened to the money they paid each month.
“It’s a critical situation. We are very angry and there are so many questions. Where is the money we pay going?” a local business owner told Namibian Sun on Thursday.
Another resident said it was unfair that the town council, despite being aware of the impending suspension, did not issue a warning.
“Why did the council not notify the residents? They covered it up, they should have warned us.”
Christoph /Uirab, CEO of the Rehoboth town council, defended the lack of notification last week, saying that the town council immediately sprang into action when they received the NamWater letter on 11 August.
“We immediately convened a meeting when we received the letter,” he said, adding that a task team was handed the responsibility of making the payments.
“We had enough time to make the payments, but the payments were of such a nature that we needed to take resolutions as a town council and that is where the delay came in,” he said.
He said the task team did not have a mandate to settle the amount and that is where the delays happened.
“It’s not that that the council did not want to inform the community”, he insisted, saying that “time caught up with us”.
He admitted that there was a problem in the municipality’s finance department and said it would be urgently addressed.
“There is no proper planning in order to make sure these types of situations do not happen,” he said.
He said now the seriousness of the situation had sunk in, as well as the fact that there are no proper guidelines in place in the finance department.
He added that the payments systems would be reviewed.
Rehoboth residents last week indicated that they planned a protest march for this week.
JANA-MARI SMITH