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DAM-L Biwater cuts some of Nelspruit's water/LS (fwd)
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Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 10:44:11 -0800
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From: lori@irn.org (Lori Pottinger)
Subject: Biwater cuts some of Nelspruit's water/LS
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This is about a South African privatized water supply system.
A. Mpumalanga courts, police hit by water cuts
B. African Eye News Service
C. July 24, 2000
D. By Justin Arenstein
E. NELSPRUIT _ The magistrate_s courts and police
station in Mpumalanga_s capital of Nelspruit had their
water supplies cut on Monday after the national public
works department allegedly failed to honour its
overdue accounts.
Nelspruit water utility company Biwater confirmed all
water to the district and regional courts, central
police station and district police headquarters were
cut at 10am on Monday after public works failed to pay
a R60 000 bill that was 30 days overdue.
The cut left staff, prisoners and witnesses without
sanitary or drinking water, but did not disrupt court
hearings.
Biwater spokesperson Mary Anne Greyling said the local
prison was also in arrears but water was not cut
following objections from prisoners last time services
were cut.
"This payment problem is unfortunately a recurrent
issue with the government. Some accounts were settled
almost immediately after we cut the water, but R25 000
was still outstanding by the close of business on
Monday," said Greyling.
"The outstanding accounts were for May and although
they are almost all now paid, accounts for June are
unpaid and we are back to square one again."
Other government departments affected by the cuts
include the Barberton Commando and South African
National Defence Force (SANDF) medical corps in
Nelspruit.
Similar problems in Mpumalanga_s largest industrial
city, Witbank, saw the council cut all electricity
services to the district Police Intelligence unit.
Witbank council spokesman Ben Buurman confirmed that
Public Works consistently failed to pay a R3 500
account since February, despite a stream of written
and telephonic warnings.
"We were reluctant to cut the power, because the unit
supplies a valuable public service but there has to be
a limit," said Buurman.
He confirmed that power was cut for almost one week,
disrupting crime intelligence services in the
Highveld.
The cut prevented police from inputting new
intelligence data and accessing existing databases.
Public works spokesmen failed to comment on the issue
by the time of going to press. - African Eye News Service
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Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program,
and Editor, World Rivers Review
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
Tel. (510) 848 1155 Fax (510) 848 1008
http://www.irn.org
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