Grootfontein
The municipality of Grootfotein will introduce a prepaid water system that would compel residents at the informal settlement town to pay for water which is currently not the case as the inhabitants of these dwellings have enjoyed free water over the past several years.
The unhindered access to free water will now be a thing of the past. It is believed that free access to water has cost the municipality millions of dollars in water bills.
The municipality’s Public Relations Officer Luke Salomo said the municipality could no longer shoulder the financial burden alone as it feels it has done all in in its power to assist community members.
“It is now time for them to take responsibility of their own burden. We have assisted them enough. We will introduce the prepaid water system whereby they will be issued with tokens that they will be using when drawing water. However this token will need to be recharged with a certain amount for them to be functional,” stated Salomo.
“We will not just implement the system, but we will educate the residents of the importance and inform them accordingly as to why we are changing the system as this system also requires funds to achieve its goals,” he added.
He said people had relocated to these informal settlements after which they started to demand basic services such as lights, roads and electricity, which they were eventually provided.