It is public knowledge that local government has an obligation to provide quality and sustainable basic services to communities. However, municipalities are struggling to provide these services due to non-payment by communities they serve, and Mogale City Local Municipality is no exception. Regrettably, the culture of non-payment not only poses a major threat to the financial sustainability of the municipality but also has crippling effects on service delivery.
Non-Revenue Water (NRW) is Mogale City’s biggest challenge. Approximately 64.90% of our water does not generate revenue meaning that the municipality does not collect income from the volumes of water it supplies to consumers due to consumption that is not billed for. This revenue loss unfortunately constrains the municipality’s ability to meet its financial obligations to bulk water suppliers, namely Johannesburg and Rand Water which then directly impacts on service delivery. Currently, the municipality is owed R72 926 022,30 in excess by consumers for water consumed.
It is for this reason that Mogale City is taking a firm step to improve water revenue collection by implementing a prepaid water meter conversion project targeting prepaid water meter users that have not been paying for or purchasing water. Households and commercial properties that have had access to water even when they had not purchased water tokens, will have their prepaid water meters replaced with conventional meters. Once the meter is converted, consumers will be billed for their consumption monthly based on their respective meter readings which will help overcome NRW challenges that account to a substantial amount of revenue loss for the municipality.
We encourage consumers that have not been paying for or purchasing water to report their faulty prepaid meters by sending an email to watercomplaints@mogalecity.gov.za or visit our Water Services offices located at President Building on President Street in the CBD. The conversion from prepaid to conventional will happen at no cost to customers.