31 Dec 2012

Defaulting Department of Water Affairs (DWA) customers in Maun should brace themselves for disconnections beginning February.

DWA station manager, Mr Omogae Mpho said his office had a list of people who had not paid their water bills for years. “We did our first water mass disconnection October  1, 2012 and it was also our first in three years,” he said. He indicated that since Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) would be taking over the role of supplying water from DWA, the department wanted to transfer operations on a clean slate. “We do not want them to be burdened with collecting outstanding balances,” he said. Operations wiould be transferred to WUC on April. 1, 2013. Mr Mpho further said there were misconceptions that once WUC took over, water charges would skyrocket. “That is totally not true. It is just that they will be more vigilant than us in collecting revenue and as such operations will run smoothly and diligently,” he said.

He said the fact that Maun spent years without adequate water supply also perpetuated the problem of unpaid water bills. “When the water supply got better, people did not equate water usage with prices and they were just using it without taking note of how much they were using,” he said. He said while disconnections should normally encourage people to pay, they had little effect in Maun where defaulters were used to not having water. On the water supply in Maun during holidays when the place was buzzing with tourists, Mr Mpho said unlike last year, they had no problems. “This year water supply is good unlike last year when we had the Setatunga debacle. All our boreholes are working and our tanks are filled to capacity,” he said. He indicated that they had not received reports of areas not getting water because of the increased numbers of people in Maun. On reports that sometimes the water changed  colour, Mr Mpho said that could be due to two reasons.

“Pipes in Maun have gone for long without water and now that there is water, it might be that the pipes are cleaning themselves or that there was a breakdown and when we fixed it some dirt would have gone in,” he said. He urged people to report such cases of unclear water or bring the water samples to them so that they could investigate. “We have not gone on holiday and people can report any breakdowns they might have during this time,” he concluded. Ends