PHA-Exch> Joburg City's proposed water tariff increases

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: PHM Global Secretariat secretariat at phmovement.org
 *From:* antiprivatisationforum at gmail.com



*TARIFF INCREASE ESCALATES THE WAR ON THE POOR*

The shock headline in *The Star* that the City of Joburg is doing away with
its Free Basic Water (FBW) policy is not as abrupt as the newspaper
proclaims. Tariff hikes for basic services hit the poor hardest and the 85%
increase in the price of water announced by the Monday ('Family Day')
edition would certainly necessitate 'illegal' connections for poor
households. Enquiries to the office of the mayor by the Coalition Against
Water Privatisation in response to *The Star*'s article have shown, however,
that the plug hasn't been entirely pulled on Free Water. FBW will still be
provided but the disciplinary *klap* water users will receive on exceeding
the allocation has been intensified into an unrestrained hiding. What the
story confirms more than anything else is that the commodification of water
has indeed made water users vulnerable to arbitrary increments.

According to the Coalition's mayoral source, the tariff increases are to
take effect on the 1st of July. These increases in the costs of water,
electricity, sanitation and refuse removal will be open to public comment.
While the APF and the Coalition Against Water Privatisation have not
received any information or been contacted about the proposals, they can
only invite the escalation of struggle for access to basic resources by the
poor. According to our information, all Johannesburg households will get 10
kilolitre FBW per household per month but, unlike the current 6kl FBW
allocation, this will fall away if you use more than 10kl. If you use 11kl
or more it will be as though there was no FBW at all and you will be paying
at the rate of R2.50 for every kl from 0 up to 6kl, and R4.40 per kl from
6kl to 10kl. For every kilolitre from 10kl to 15kl you'll pay R5.90, and so
on in stepped tariffs.

The indications are that poor households will still be induced to accept
prepaid meters under the new tariff regime. *The Star* reported that tariffs
charged to households using a prepaid meter will be lower than those tariffs
applied to credit-metered consumption. Accordingly, R3.40 will be charged
per kilolitre in the 7-10kl range for prepaid water users, and R4.00 per
kilolitre consumed in the 11kl-15kl range. If The Star's report is accurate
on differential tariffs for prepaid and credit meters, the FBW policy will
become all the more a cynical ploy to get poor users to cut their
consumption. Research conducted by the APF in Phiri in Soweto in 2006 after
prepaid meters were introduced showed that each household consumed, on
average, between 8.7 and 15.3 kilolitres of water per month. The pressure to
limit consumption to the 10kl threshold, therefore, will become stricter and
will confirm secondary findings of the research that water users will flush
the toilet less, bath more seldom and increase stress in the household.

To soften the blow for poor households, a revamped indigency register will
accompany the increased tariffs. Not only is the present system hopelessly
inadequate and inaccessible (if ever proof was needed then one only has to
look at the one-fifth of poor households that are presently on the
register), but the humiliating means-testing that goes along with
registering as an indigent requires that the poor – i.e. those least able to
do so – register themselves. The City plans a big publicity campaign to
publicise the indigency register but there are no guarantees that the
changes to the registration process will be made before the proposed changes
to the FBW policy and tariff increases. The registration of indigent
households is only flimsy cover for the City's unwillingness to do what they
know they should be doing – the provision of adequate and accessible free
basic services to the poor.

It is not a surprise to the APF that there are these proposed increases by
the municipality since iGoli 2002 corporatised City management. Johannesburg
Water, City Power and Pickitup are run as municipal business entities
regulated by their profitability. From the onset in 2000 of the neo-liberal,
micro-economic plan, the APF has mobilised affected communities against the
privatisation of basic services. The tariff hikes proposed by the City are
only the latest salvo in the war against the poor. We live in a context
where more than 50% of the community is dependant on government grants and
more than 40% is unemployed. The APF rejects tariff increases as they
overlook these harsh realities and measure need according to profitability.
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-- 
Anti Privatisation Forum
123 Pritchard Street (cnr Mooi)
6th floor Vogas House, Johannesburg
Tel: (011) 333-8334 Fax: (011) 333-8365
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