South Africa: Cape Residents, Unions Slam City Water Device

Concerns are being raised about the ongoing roll-out of tens of thousands of water management devices in Cape Town, which the City says conserves water, but which some residents complain are often faulty and lead to their water supply being cut off.

Almost 31,000 devices – which critics argue are targeted mainly at poor households – have been installed across the metro to date, in addition to 32,496 households who are currently on the trickle system, according to information provided by the City.

The water management device allows a free flow of water until a daily allocation out of the monthly 6,000 free kilolitres is reached, after which water cuts off unless more has been purchased. The trickle system releases the 6,000 free kilolitres through a restricted flow over the period of a month.

The City has denied the device is being installed only in poor households as a way of controlling municipal arrears.

In Static Heights, a 236 house housing project in Kewtown, Athlone, one woman, complained: “I can’t even do the washing or cooking because the water cuts off before we have used the prescribed amount.” She said their worst experience had been going without water for three consecutive days. She said her grandmother was a cancer patient and sometimes there was not enough water to bath her.

In February 2009, Parliament’s portfolio committee on Water Affairs and Forestry heard testimony from complaining residents who were living with the device and called for a report from the City on the issue. The South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) regards the water management device as the same as the pre-paid water meter, which the Johannesburg High Court ruled last year was unconstitutional – a ruling being appealed by the City of Johannesburg. Samwu national researcher Jeff Rudin said the argument for saving water was “laughable” and the device was instead about credit control as it was mostly installed in poor areas.

But according to a March 2009 press release issued by the city, the devices are saving 156 million litres of water worth R519,000 every month. City of Cape Town director of water, sanitation and utility services Lungile Dhlamini said the objective was not to restrict water supplies, but rather to provide water to customers which they could afford. This happened through the process of repairing leakages at properties, installing flow management devices and then writing off account arrears.

Dhlamini said there was a “very low incidence” of faulty devices. Nor was water cut off due to faulty devices, he said, but only due to daily allocations being exceeded or leaks reoccurring.

Source: Yugendree Naidoo, West Cape News / allAfrica.com, 21 June 2009