19 Sep 2013

Water bills for secondary schools are ‘very high’, says chief education officer-regional operations, Mr Ndinene Mbuso.

Speaking in an interview after the national secondary school heads conference, Mr Mbuso said the bills had far exceeded the P52m that was budgeted for payment of water bills, citing Shashe River School whose bill was P11m.

He said the problem was caused by the take-over of water distribution service from department of Water Affairs to Water Utilities Corporation, which led to a two year period without water billing resulting in accumulation of water bills. Prior to the take-over of water distribution by WUC, he said school water bills were as low as P4 000.

He said all schools particularly boarding schools had high water bills, adding that on a monthly basis, his office paid a monthly bill of P500 000 for one school. Mr Mbuso said his office had realised that schools were too old thus the plumbing was dilapidated resulting in leakages which ultimately contributed to water wastage. He also stated that most schools buildings share connection with teachers’ houses resulting in high water bills.

“To address this we are contemplating to separate these connections and we are encouraging schools to submit quotations,” he said. He said the problem is common in schools in rural areas than in urban areas because schools in urban areas have separated connection from teachers’ houses as such teachers pay their own water bills. He said monitoring of water usage should be emphasised, urging school heads to engage plumbers in their respective schools to ensure that there are no leakages.

In addition he said the ministry is resuscitating boreholes in schools for gardening and washing purpose. “We have already started this initiative at Tsetsebjwe secondary school,” he said. He therefore encouraged school heads to get water rights for their schools so that the ministry could assist with drilling and equipping the boreholes.

“We are also going to encourage schools to purchase water collector tanks to harvest rain water,” he said. BOPA