By: Rodney Pienaar
City of Windhoek has announced that it will be rectifying backdated charges of single household water consumers.
This comes after the CoW took a decision in August last year to estimate water charges after a water scarcity crisis was declared.
“The affected clients will see the credit on their next statement that will be available from the 25th of March. On an annual basis the CoW revisits and revises all water tariffs based on the water availability in the central area and such evaluation is done by all water stakeholders in the central area of Namibia in line with the City’s water management plan.”
“The declaration of water scarcity means that Windhoek should reduce its water consumption and set targets to save at least 10 % of savings on water consumption. This implies that higher water supply tariffs as gazzeted for times of limited water supply will be charged and not the normal charges,” said manager of cooperate communications, Harold Akwenye.
Akwenye also said that instead of charging consumers the rate applicable at the time of limited water supply, the City charged the consumers normal tariffs that are charged during normal water supply.
“The impact was more severe for clients whose charges were estimated for a longer period and which has now resulted in high bills affecting this segment of the clientele.”
“An alternative approach for not implementing charges deterring excess consumption will be the rationing of water which will be more in conformity to all residents vent hos who consume responsibly. Rationing means shutting down water usage for a certain period of time during the day from the entire City.”
“It is evident that rainfall has been poor so far which has resulted in less inflow into the dams that serve the central areas of Namibia where Windhoek is located,” he said.
