Swakopmund disputes NamWater bill

The Swakopmund municipality has asked NamWater to rectify a disputed bill, saying it owes the utility nothing besides its normal monthly usage.Municipal officials last week confirmed that the town had received a N$13.3 million bill for February, of which N$7.8 million was monthly water usage.The municipality paid the N$7.8 million but disputed the rest of the bill. “The remaining balance is for two disputed invoices amounting to N$4.1 million, which were levied on our statement for desalinated water supplied to our town for December 2015 and January 2016,” the municipality said in a statement. “The remaining balance is as a result of settlement discounts amounting to N$5.6 million which were not credited to our account since March 2016,” it stated.The municipality's finance department last week requested a meeting with NamWater to discuss the matter.The municipality shared documents that trace the dispute back to 2016. Contested NamWater has declined to comment on the matter, emphasising the company's policy not to discuss client accounts and disputes in public. A letter sent to the municipality by NamWater in June 2016 said it was “no longer sustainable or physically possible to abstract enough water from groundwater sources in the region to meet the demand of the central coastal customers.”Therefore, NamWater negotiated that Areva's desalination plant supply towns with desalinated water at groundwater tariffs from November 2015 to February 2016.That tariff was lower than the one paid by mines for desalinated water.But the NamWater letter explained that the towns' water demand was higher than the agreed threshold at which desalinated water would be supplied at the lower tariff.As a result, the additional water supply was priced at normal desalinated tariffs to the coastal towns.However, the Swakopmund town council argued in a March 2016 letter to NamWater that it was only liable to pay the gazetted tariff for water supply and that the invoiced amounts lacked sufficient detail to explain the invoiced amounts.It asked NamWater to supply a more detailed bill. Tricky NamWater spokesman Johannes Shigwedha said although customer accounts cannot be discussed in public, the utility engages with customers on account matters at all times.Shigwedha said many customers “owe NamWater huge amounts of money”, and the company engages with all its clients to work on strategies to help minimise debts and to work “towards eliminating them in the long run”.Documents submitted as part of a court battle between the Stampriet town council and a business owner over water supply and utility bills underlined that many towns and villages have accrued significant debt to the water utility over the years.The records show that, in contrast, most large municipalities, including Swakopmund, manage their debt better and owe NamWater less.NamWater CEO Abraham Nehemia said earlier this month that the company faced an uphill battle because of outstanding debts.“NamWater does not want to depend on government bailouts. If we were able to recover all the costs based on the water we've supplied, NamWater should be a company able to carry out its tasks without problems,” he said.He said unpaid utility bills hampered the development of new infrastructure and maintenance of existing infrastructure.JANA-MARI SMITH

Swakopmund disputes NamWater bill

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-17

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Swakopmund disputes NamWater bill

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-17

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