The Sunday News
BULAWAYO City Council has revised downwards by 50 percent water rationing penalties as the local authority seems to have bowed down to pressure from civic groups in the city who have been calling for the scrapping of the fines.Ironically, the reviewing of the penalties comes at a time when Bulawayo is confronted with a dire water situation which is compelling the local authority to decommission two of its supply dams — Umzingwane and Upper Ncema — due to dwindling raw water levels.
Bulawayo City Council has also launched a water disconnection blitz on defaulting residents to recover over $115 million owed to the local authority.
According to latest council minutes, the local authority has introduced a staggered system of penalising offenders, according to the number of times one who would have committed the offence. Previously, residents who were found using hosepipes for non-industrial activity were slapped with a $100 fine, but the new regime of penalties will see the offence attracting $50 for first offenders. Second offenders will be fined $80, while third offenders will pay $100.
For the offence of using domestic water for bricks moulding, first offenders will be fined $200, second offenders $350, while third offenders will pay $500. In the old penalties regime the offence attracted a fine of $1 000.
Using domestic water for construction, which previously attracted a penalty of
$1 000 will now warrant a fine of $200 for first offenders, $350 for second offenders and $500 for third offenders.
Illegal connections and by-passing water meters will now attract a penalty of $500 down from $1 500 which was charged under the old penalties regime.The fine in this instance will not be staggered as with the fine for other offences. In reviewing the water rationing penalties the local authority said it considered the prevailing economic situation which had seen most offenders failing to pay previous fines.
“From the time when the water rationing charges were introduced to date, it had been observed that only a few offenders had managed to pay. Taking for example the penalty of
$1 500 for illegal connections, which had since accumulated 116 tickets and only nine have been paid.
The councillors highlighted that the previous penalties regime had thus seen the council fail to achieve its intended objective.
Bulawayo City Council introduced water rationing penalties in March 2010 as a response to the deteriorating water situation prevailing then and to deter consumers from irresponsible use of water.
Under the water rationing scheme, houses in the eastern suburbs were allocated not more than 350 litres per day, while those in the western suburbs were to use 300 litres.
