afrol News, 18 July - Namibia's bulk water supplier, NamWater will reduce the water supply to defaulters by 50 percent if they do not settle their debts by 20 July, according to a Namibian government release today. Presently, the debt owed to NamWater stands at over N$ 96 million (euro 12 million).

NamWater's Acting Chief Executive Officer, Dr Vaino Shivute announced at a media conference yesterday that the company "reluctantly" had to resolve to this tougher measure because all negotiations to recover the money have proved futile. This was announced by the Namibian government in a press release today.

According to Graham Hopwood, journalist at 'The Namibian', NamWater is a state-owned monopoly that is supposed to be run on a commercial basis and pay dividends to the government. No privatisation plans are thought to exist, but the parastatal is trying to run in a more transparent, efficient and effective manner to avoid losses. Prices have therefore been raised substantially.

The new policy by NamWater indirectly may result in supply cuts for the urban poor, unable to pay the increased water bills from their city councils in arrears. Similar reactions by South African water suppliers, where private defaulters simply were cut off, led to a cholera epidemic in Johannesburg as poor customers had to turn to unsafe water sources.

NamWater today could not avail specific information about its defaulters, which do not include private costumers. However, the company's Finance General Manager, Justus Tjituka, told reporters in Windhoek that the defaulting customers include bulk users like government ministries, municipalities and town councils.

According to the government-run news agency NAMPA, the Ministry of Agriculture was topping NamWater's list of defaulting ministries. This followed by the Ministry of Basic Education and the Ministry of Sport and Culture.

Further defaulters, according to information provided by Mr Tjituka, included mines, municipalities, town councils, village councils, regional councils and parastatals. Most institutions had complained that the bills were "questionable and or incorrect," added the NamWater representative.

NamWater does not deliver water directly to private customers. "I would like to point out that NamWater does not sell water, it only sells the service for delivering water," Mr Shivute emphasised when speaking to 'The Namibian' today.

As part of a commercialisation and privatisation wave of water and electricity providers throughout Africa, many poor urban dwellers around the continent have seen their water supply cut off if they are unable to pay hiking water bills. African states are commonly urged to implement such policies by the World Bank and IMF.

Namibia, which inherited its already commercial parastatals from the South African system 12 years ago, has however been in a different situation. "Since Namibia has managed to avoid major commitments to the World Bank/IMF there is no real donor/outside pressure to privatise at the moment," Mr Hopwood tells afrol News. Also, the ruling SWAPO party in general not favours privatisation.

Nonetheless, Namibia's parastatals, such as NamWaters and its electricity providers, run on a commercial basis, which means that they charge full cost prices for their services, which often may prove too expensive for the country's many poor inhabitants.

Mr Shivute however points out that his company has never been able to operate fully on a cost recovery method because of "social responsibility considerations" NamWater has been faced with.

Several city councils however operate by these methods. One year ago, for example, the Windhoek City Council approved a 13, 11 and 10 percent increase in water, electricity, and refuse removal and sewage tariffs, respectively. This caused strong reactions from civil society, as the city council was deemed still "unable to provide decent services."

By staff writer

© afrol News

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