Aletta Shikololo
Eenhana - The Eenhana Town Council has approved a decision to increase water tariffs by 4% for the 2022/23 financial year to recover costs incurred in maintaining water and sewerage reticulation facilities.
The adjustments will see an increase of N$0.85 cents for households, N$0.93 cents for non-domestic, and N$0.73 cents on residential special users per cubic metre, respectively. Sewerage connection fees are also adjusted by 10% to 25%, depending on the size of the pipe.
During the previous financial year, the council also increased its water consumption charge by 30 cents per cubic metre.
“The adjustments we have made to our tariff structure are far below the services demanded by our residents. Everyone demands council to deliver within a very short period of time, which is impossible due to the slow cash inflow and inadequacy of other resources. However, we believe that the adjustment made on the tariff structure will enable us to move forward bit by bit,” said the town’s mayor, Omri-Onn Kavandje, adding that the entire country is affected by the economic downturn.
Services
The council tabled a budget amounting to N$88 million for the 2022/23 financial year. This is an 18% increase on last year’s budget.
Of this amount, N$10 million is budgeted for municipal services, which includes the provision of water and sewer systems at the Oukango Park location, the provision of waterpoints at informal settlements, the installation of street lights and the construction and maintenance of roads infrastructure.
Whilst delivering his 2022/23 budget speech on Monday, Kavandje stated that residents, the business community and government offices owe the council N$30 million in unpaid municipal services for the previous financial year.
Acknowledging the impact of Covid-19 on residents, he said the council will start organising and strategising their efforts to devise how best they can service their debts.
On the brighter side, the mayor said they have adopted an open-door policy to engage in good conversations, and proposed agreements with clients on how to settle their accounts.
“A small portion is better than not paying at all. I want to thank all residents who have been paying their accounts on time,” he added.
Overall, the council has also devoted N$63 million, which represents 71% of the total budget, to operational expenses.
Kavandje said the biggest portion is necessitated by an increase in the maintenance of both water supply systems and sewerage reticulation systems in town, as well as the current increases in fuel prices. Another portion of N$25 million, which represents 29% of the total expenditure, is allocated to capital projects.
The increase in this financial year’s budget is necessitated by the improvements of housing delivery during the last year, which takes a direct proportion of their revenue streams.
“The sources of our revenue are payments from residents for the services rendered. This money has to be reinvested in the town’s development,” said Kavandje. In order to realise the budget, residents were advised to honour their obligations by paying
their municipal accounts on time.
“Failure to do so will put council in a very difficult situation, which might have a direct, negative impact on the socio-economic development of the town,” the mayor observed.