Muriel Walshe, Sun Valley
This morning I read that the they now want to charge a water levy.
We Capetonians are doing our level best to help try to save water.
Myself and many others have brought our water consumption way down. Don’t charge those who make an effort.
We, the citizens of Cape Town, report the water leakages. It’s
up to the City of Cape Town to repair those leakages before litres and litres of water have been lost.
The City of Cape Town is installing new prepaid electricity meters and they say that you save 10 to 15% less on electricity. Sorry but my electricity has increased by R250 with a prepaid meter so where have I saved?
With the rising cost of living, please tell me where I and many
other who live on very tight budgets are expected to find the extra money you now want to charge for a water levy?
* Xanthea Limberg, Mayoral committee member for informal settlements, water and waste services; and energy, responds:
Due to the implementation of water restrictions and our residents’ efforts to save, the City has experienced a drop in revenue.
This can affect our ability to carry out maintenance and increase the resilience of our water supply to drought. The City is therefore exploring various funding models that will allow us to better protect our water supply against the effects of climate change and which will have the least impact on consumers.
The City is exploring all funding models. No decision has been made and a key consideration in this process will be to minimise the impact on ratepayers. The City will make announcements in this regard when we are able to do so.
The City currently uses a tariff system where higher users pay more per kilolitre than those who use less, i.e. where lower consumption is incentivised. It is vital that we all do our part to secure water supplies into the future because water is life. Capetonians must continue saving while the City will do everything it can to bring additional supply online. We can only avoid acute water shortages by working together.
Please also note that in terms of electricity, customers are charged according to the same tariffs whether they are supplied via a prepaid meter or a credit meter. However, a recent independent study at UCT has confirmed that customers converting from credit metering to prepaid metering are realising savings of up to 15% on the monthly electricity accounts because they are able monitor/manage their consumption with a prepaid meter.
