Africa-Press – Namibia. THE Ondangwa Town Council is losing hundreds of litres of water worth thousands of dollars through unauthorised water connections on a daily basis.
Most of the culprits who have been illegally helping themselves to water are from the informal areas at the town, Petrus Shipanga, Ondangwa’s manager for infrastructure planning and technical services, says.
He says the council will impose fines of N$2 000 on those found guilty of this offence.
Shipanga says the council cannot say what exactly the extent of the losses is, but says there are huge discrepancies between invoices sent to residents and NamWater’s monthly bill.
Water supply at the town could deteriorate as a result of illegal water connections as non-paying consumers use much more water than paying customers, he says.
“The town council has discovered the water infrastructure network is being exposed to a wide range of illegal connections, which significantly impacts the council’s ability to collect revenue and adequately supply water. This situation is costly to the town council, and is also putting our water infrastructure under tremendous stress. Our residents are stealing water on a daily basis. These people come with so many ways to bypass meters,” Shipanga says.
He says the town council is struggling to identify the culprits and can only rely on the community to be on the lookout and inform the council in the event of suspected illegal connections.
“It is really difficult to detect and bring the people to book. The council cannot detect the revenue flow either, because we have so many residents who are not paying for their water,” he says.
Shipanga says the council has tried to alleviate the situation by disconnecting households’ water supply, and by installing stoppers in water-supply pipes where households do not settle their bills, but residents remove these stoppers.
The council does not have assigned inspectors either, he says.
“Residents need to play their part and ensure that municipal infrastructure is protected, report water leaks for repair to reduce water consumption, refrain from setting up illegal water connections, and actively report the people involved. People remove the stoppers we put up and continue using the water, but the meters don’t pick up readings for consumption. We can’t invoice them as a result,” Shipanga says.
