Even with the development of a new water treatment plant at Rundu, water cuts to the town could continue if the Rundu Town Council does not pay its outstanding debt with NamWater.

This is according to NamWater Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Abraham Nehemia, who spoke to Nampa on the sidelines of the Rundu purification plant extension launch here on Thursday.

Rundu has been experiencing recurring water crises over the past decade, with its debt to NamWater amounting to over N.dollars 124 million, while residents owe the Rundu Town Council about N.dollars 300 million in unpaid water bills.

The N.dollars 500 million purification plant project includes raw water abstraction, a conveyancing system, upgrading of existing infrastructure, and decommissioning of redundant infrastructure.

“The Rundu Town Council debt is a result of the product that was supplied to them. Whatever water that is supplied to a client must be paid for,” Nehemia said.

The CEO said the corporation recently met with the Cabinet committee on treasury, as well as the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development, to see how the issue can be handled.

He said the water utility also engaged the management of the town council to see how they can jointly find solutions to their debt, illegal water connections and replacing old infrastructure.

“We also met with their finance and technical department to look at how they do the billing and collections, as well as town planning aspects to help them before the water treatment plant is operational,” Nehemia noted.

Minister of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform, Calle Schlettwein, said NamWater should be aware that customers will mostly be willing to pay for their water if the water utility improves its service delivery.

He however also called on residents to pay their bills, stating that the service of providing water is costly.

Meanwhile, he said he would like to see people living along the Kavango River where there is a lack of infrastructure, receive potable water.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency