WUC Downplays Water Disconnections

  • Says the idea is to encourage defaulters to update their accounts
  • Utility is owed P800m

SESUPO RANTSIMAKO

FRANCISTOWN: Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) is insisting on defaulting customers updating their accounts in order to recover P800 million owed to the parastatal.
Responding to enquiries from The Botswana Gazette WUC spokesperson Mmoloki Ntesang Nchidzi spoke of a self-service platform that is convenient and easily accessible by customers. Nchidzi said Gaborone is leading with a debt of P329 million, followed by Francistown with P112 million, Lobatse with P46 million and Selibe-Phikwe with P39 million.

But the focus is on big villages because they have huge debts too, he added. In the questionnaire, the state-owned enterprise ignored the matter of the number of disconnections effected so far and sought to downplay the issue by the intention is to engage and encourage defaulters to update their accounts. “Despite the high unpaid water bills, the corporation still has a mandate to supply water to all areas in Botswana,” Nchidzi said.

The MP for Maun East, Goretetse Kekgonegile, recently appealed to the Minister of Land Management ,Water Sanitation, Kefentse Mzwinila, to intervene in the rampant disconnections.