John Muyamba
Rundu-Rundu Town Council Acting CEO Mathews Naironga says during the month of August alone the council had detected 172 illegal water connections and issued the same number of fines for N$2,000 each.
By Friday only 106 offenders had paid their fines, to a collective tune of N$212,000.
This campaign to detect and disconnect illegal water connections ran during t August. “We are thinking of extending it because we have not covered the entire town – we only managed to cover some percentages of certain recently proclaimed locations – like 43 percent of Kehemu, 55 percent of Tuhingireni, 33 percent of Ndama, 39 percent of Kasote, 30 percent of Sauyemwa and 62 percent of Satotwa,” Naironga said.
“We didn’t reach Kaisosi yet, as well as other townships around town and if we can get 100 percent coverage I’m sure the number would shoot up.”
Once the council detected an illegal water connection, it immediately disconnected it and issued a fine to the offender. “There are some connections that are in the system and have been disconnected due to non-payment but have been illegally reconnected, and many that were illegally connected are not in the system and don’t bother to pay – those we removed as they are illegal,” he continued.
According to Naironga in terms of water losses the illegal water connections are creating a big problem to the council and town. “We are paying a very high bill at NamWater but then what we are able to source from residents’ water bills is not going to tally,” he said.
The acting CEO warned residents not to pay individual town council officials outside the revenue office, or residents, in order to get water connected to their plots as that would be illegal.
He also advised that those seeking a water connection should follow exising procedures of applying to the council.
“They must pay at our revenue office and follow the procedures thereafter. Some officials are committing fraud by taking money from residents to connect them to the town’s water network and at the end of the day the money does not reach the council coffers and that water meter is not on the system – they end up not paying but when the council eventually discovers that they will be fined,” Naironga said.