An economist Bongani Mahlangu says municipalities’ failure to pay water boards is negatively affecting the entities’ ability to supply water.
Municipalities owe water boards billions of rand.
Mahlangu has urged the authorities to ensure that the problem does not affect key sectors such as mining.
“There are those dire consequences to economy. One typical one that a lot of people would be familiar with is that even [if] there is no water at your workplace, occupational health and safety, you tend to go home and when you go home early, those address hours of production or productivity that have been lost.”
“Those are targets that would not have been achieved and those are budgets – daily/weekly – depending how long water has not been there – that would have also been lost. So in the greater scale of things, it might even lead to force majeure.”
Magalies Water says it’s a struggle to provide bulk water because municipalities owe it a total of R2.5 billion.
Water utility’s finance committee, chairperson Priscilla Mashaba says, “The municipalities are owing us about R2.5 billion. It’s a lot of money. It’s a major risk for the sustainability of Magalies Water. So we are engaging them to sign agreements on repayments and also monetary agreements. If they fail, we engage in inter-governmental processes.”
