By: Justicia Shipena
The residents of Swakopmund owe the municipality about N$100 million in water debts, according to the chief executive officer of Swakopmund town, Alfeus Archie Benjamin.
But the days are now numbered for the residents as it has come out that the municipality will be disconnecting water for unpaid accounts.
“The municipality is owed about a N$100 million, and this amount was mostly generated during the Covid period when we received directives not to cut services,” said Benjamin.
Benjamin expressed that the council of Swakop reviewed its position in November last year regarding the water supply.
“The council decided we cannot continue this way, so we cut off all that free water we provided in the informal settlements and installed prepaid water,” he said.
He added that this was done for the entity to recover the debt from the resident and businesses.
“We have also not increased the tariffs of the services for our residents over the past two years to cushion the impact of covid-19, but we cannot continue like this. We need to recover our debt.”
He further said the council has decided to give residents and businesses a four-month amnesty, “where they can come in and make payment arrangements for those who cannot settle their arrears at once.”
Benjamin stated that if residents don’t use the four months to settle their debt by 01 April, the council will take the matter to court.
He said the council has learned of the impact of the global pandemic where people lost their jobs and have thus been lenient to all.
“We tried to speak to customers on their situation, and we know there are customers who have been re-employed. So, it is not an event to say we are just going to cut. We are trying to deal with it according to each individual’s circumstances.”
He expressed that the directive by the government not to disconnect water at the beginning of Covid was a noble idea.
“Some of our communities had no access to these services or could not pay. We responded that way because we wanted to help our communities, and the debt just escalated,” he said.
Benjamin said the arrangement was to reference the municipal’s expenditure on free water.
“We submitted to the ministry for refunds, but we have not received any refunds from the amounts that we submitted monthly. We had to decide then to see what we do going forward because debt is just increasing.”
“We now have standpipes all over our informal settlements that we have put back to prepaid, and people are paying for water.”
He said government establishments, businesses and residents have also received notices to settle their accounts.
“After this period, we will cut the water without notice.”
When asked about the amount government institutions owe the municipality, Benjamin replied saying; “I don’t have the figures right now, but the institutions also owe us large amounts.”
A statement released on Tuesday by the Swakopmund municipality states that businesses, government institutions, and developers with outstanding unpaid accounts should make payment arrangements before 01 March 2022.
“Residential and all other account holders are advised to settle their municipal accounts as soon as possible. If not possible, account holders should make necessary arrangements before 01 April 2022 to avoid water disconnections,” the statement reads.
According to him, the urban ministry’s decision to cut the budget to local authorities will not affect its daily operations.
“We generate our revenue, and the budget allocations that come from the ministry is mainly for development or servicing land or housing. It will not necessarily really impact us much on our operations.”
The Swakopmund council has also said they will consider leniency based on specific motivations supported by documentary evidence.
