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dam-l SA Water article
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From owner-irn-safrica@igc.org Tue Sep 21 11:27:43 1999
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Date: Tue, 21 Sep 1999 08:18:36 -0700
From: Lori Pottinger <lori@irn.org>
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Subject: SA Water affairs says rich should pay/LS
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Rich should help pay for water - Kasrils
September 20 1999 at 02:49PM
The government was examining ways for wealthier consumers to help pay the
water costs of those less well-off, Water Affairs Minister Ronnie Kasrils
said on Monday.
It was vital that the gap between rich and poor in this regard be addressed,
he said at an international conference on drought management in Pretoria.
If that was not done, the poor from especially rural areas could be expected
to swamp the country's cities in search of better services.
Kasrils said people living in rural areas were paying about ten times more
for water than those in cities and towns with an established water supply
infrastructure.
Another discrepancy was that many poor people had to survive on 10 litres of
water a day, while those with gardens in affluent suburbs in Cape Town or
Pretoria easily used more than 100 litres a day.
"I am having a special look at this," Kasrils said.
He said a two-year old experiment in the Western Cape town of Hermanus to
address the problem had yielded promising results.
In this pilot project, all consumers received their first 50
litres of water virtually free.
"So the households that really cannot afford to pay are getting what they
need, and those who are wealthier can't complain because they get their
first 50 litres as well," Kasrils said.
"But once they (the wealthy) start consuming more than, say, 250 litres a
day, then they really have to pay for it. In that way they 'subsidise' and
assist the have-nots."
Kasrils said 96 percent of consumers in Hermanus came out in favour of this
system in a recent survey.
The experiment had increased the town council's water income by almost a
third, while the amount of water consumed had fallen by 23 percent.
"Obviously, one cannot simply say this is national policy. One needs to
study this, which we are doing," Kasrils said.
- Sapa
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Bryan Ashe
Contact details:
cell: 0826521533
tel: +27-31-2052178
e-mail: bryan@cis.co.za