Premier declares WC a disaster area – initiates project “Avoiding Day Zero"

22 May 2017

 

Premier Helen Zille has officially declared the Western Cape a disaster area in response to the current drought crisis – the worst since 1904.  

“The disaster declaration will accelerate the Western Cape Disaster Management Centre’s Project “Avoiding Day Zero”, the Province’s strategy to ensure that taps do not run dry,” said Premier Zille.

The declaration will be formally gazetted during the course of this week, and was signed by the Premier during a Cabinet meeting last week. As it stands, the disaster will be classified for a three-month period which can be extended, if the need arises.

During such a classification, the Disaster Management Act empowers the provincial government to protect key frontline service delivery points by reprioritising funding.

Project “Avoiding Day Zero”, led by the Western Cape’s Provincial Disaster Management Centre (PDMC), has three focus areas:

1.    Demand management – managing the current water supply from the respective sources;

2.    Winter conservation – ensuring that water resources are properly managed, despite a rise in dam levels during the rainy season. This avoids a disaster during the dry months; and

3.    Groundwater management – ensuring the proper management of groundwater sources like boreholes or the Table Mountain aquifer.

Government will prioritise interventions based on the provincial Drought Risk Register. Provincial Disaster Management will focus on the most critical aspects of that list. Funding will be reprioritised provincially and, should further assistance be needed, the province will approach National Treasury and the National Department of Water and Sanitation.

According to Provincial Disaster Management, the most immediate interventions, in the coming days will be:

• The drilling of boreholes at hospitals, starting in the metro, to be followed by schools in high-risk water scarce areas.

• Expediting the Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) for:
• Testing a mobile desalination plant using existing water inlet flows used for the reactors at the Koeberg site;
• Drilling into the Table Mountain aquifer;

• Appointing groundwater specialists in each district. The specialists will identify main ground water sources and coordinate the exploration and management of these resources going forward.
• Assessing state of water restrictions in the respective municipalities – while local councils remain responsible for making area-specific decisions, the disaster declaration enables the Province to issue instructions for any changes to these restrictions that may be necessary in each locality.

During the current declaration period, a provincial inter-ministerial committee – chaired by Minister Anton Bredell – will meet regularly to assess immediate threats and recommend interventions.

In the last year, at least R27 million has already been re-prioritised for interventions in areas which were declared local disasters.  In January 2016, parts of the West Coast and Central Karoo were declared agricultural drought disaster areas. Hydrological disasters were declared in Prince Albert, Witzenberg and Oudtshoorn. Through our interventions, all of these localities are no longer deemed as disaster areas.

Our government wishes to assure the public that the declaration is no cause to panic. A disaster declaration enhances control by affording the Province additional powers of intervention.

We urge all residents to continue with the current water saving measures and to adhere to restrictions imposed in their respective municipalities.

While it remains a cause for concern, we believe the current drought is an opportunity to innovate and act responsibly in the way we make use of our water resources.
 

Media Enquiries: 

Michael Mpofu
Spokesperson for Premier Helen Zille
071 564 5427
021 483 4584
Michael.Mpofu@westerncape.gov.za

Consuming water in sectional title schemes

Posted In: Paddocks Press Newsletter | 26/04/2017 |         

The current drought (or water crisis) in Cape Town has been an issue in other provinces in South Africa over the past few years. We all need to do our part to save our water resources. This article will address some of the key points to take note of when it comes to water consumption in sectional title schemes.

Water consumption

1.Separate water meters
Most of the older sectional title schemes were developed without separate meters measuring the consumption of water.

In these circumstances the body corporate receives a water bill from the local municipality, and the owners pay for their water consumption in accordance with their participation quota (as shown and allocated to each section on the last sheet of the sectional plan.) The problem with this situation is that the amount paid for water consumption is directly linked to the size or floor area of the owner’s unit, and not to the actual use of water within that section. It could be that the owner of the penthouse section with the highest participation quota only spends one month out of every year in residence during the festive season and uses minimal water for the rest of the year. This owner would be paying more for water than the owner of a bachelor flat within the scheme. However, the owner of the bachelor flat could have three people residing in in the section using high levels of water.


Prescribed management rule (“PMR”) 29(3)(a) provides the mechanism for the installation of separate water meters. A body corporate must, if so directed by a resolution of members install and maintain separate meters to measure the supply of electricity, water, gas or the supply of any other service to each member’s sections and exclusive use areas and to the common property. In terms PMR 29(3)(b) the body corporate must recover from members the cost of such water supply to sections and exclusive use areas based on the metered supply.
The body corporate will also need to install a water meter for common property water consumption. Each owner will pay for that water in accordance with their participation quota.
In the case of Rietvlei Park, all the units have the same participation quota

2.Pre-paid water meters
Another manner of dealing with water consumption in sectional title schemes is for the body corporate to install pre-payment water meters. Practically, the private suppliers of prepaid meters contract with schemes that have bulk meters for the installation of the pre-paid meters, and the users pay a rental for the use of them. The users buy tokens from a designated supplier, being the third party vendor, who provides and maintains the pre-payment facilities and software. The third party vendors pass the money collected from the end users, less a service fee of course, to the body corporate. The body corporate then pays the municipal bill for the bulk supply.
PMR 29(4) provides the mechanism for doing this. There are four requirements that must be met before the body corporate can install the pre-paid meters. Firstly, the body corporate may on the authority of a special resolution install separate pre-payment meters on the common property to control the supply of water to a section or exclusive use area.
Secondly, all members and occupiers of sections must be given at least 60 days notice of the proposed special resolution with details of all costs associated with the installation of the pre-payment system and its estimated effect on the cost of the services over the next three years. It should be noted that it is not practical to provide prepaid meters to only some of the sections in a scheme. This would require extensive rewiring and re-plumbing for the installation of separate meters for the whole scheme. Furthermore, the body corporate would need to consider that there would be cost implications for the installation as well as the service fee charged by the third party vendors.
PMR 29(5) contains two further requirements. In the third place, if a pre-payment system is installed, the body corporate is responsible to ensure that the system does not infringe on the constitutional rights of section occupiers to access basic services. Where water is supplied through pre-paid meters the service is automatically cut off where the service fee is not paid. This is contrary to the Constitutional right to access to water. The 6kl of free water that the scheme gets from the local municipality for each household will need to be pre-programmed into each meter.
Furthermore, bodies corporate are not entitled to cut off water for non-payment of levies because the scheme is not the supplier. Only the service supplier, being the local municipality is entitled to cut off the supply of water. If a body corporate or landlord cuts the water supply they are committing an act of spoliation, and the victim can apply to court for a mandament van spolie – an action to restore the water supply.
Lastly, any member who leases a unit to a tenant is responsible to ensure that the system does not infringe the rights of the tenant in terms of the Rental Housing Act 50 of 1999 (“the RHA”), which deals with matters arising between landlord and tenant, or any other law. In terms of section 16(hA) of the RHA states that “Any person who unlawfully locks out a tenant or shuts off the utilities to the rental housing property will be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine or imprisonment not exceeding two years or to both such fine and such imprisonment.”
The pre-paid water meter option provides a solution for non-payers of service fees, but can create other problems. It is for this reason that I suggest that bodies corporate rather opt for the installation of separate water meters. As is the case in Rietvlei Park
If you have any questions on the ways in which water is consumed and metered in sectional title schemes please contact us at consulting@paddocks.co.za.
Image source: cgenarchive.org