Buffalo City has backed down in the battle of the tanks.
On Monday, the metro announced that privately owned water tanks would be free from taxation.
Buffalo City Metro, responding to a local and national outcry over its apparent attempt to force homeowners to register their private tanks, springs and boreholes and possibly apply a levy, has backed down.
On Monday, BCM spokesperson Sam Ngwenya released a new official statement on the issue, which has previously riled residents who vowed to refuse to co-operate: “The municipality has no intention of charging people and making money out of their water tanks.”
However, BCM still maintained that their 11-year-old bylaw, taken off the shelf, dusted off and issued as a “mandatory” notice in November, still gave them the power to inspect and fine homeowners whose private water harvesting systems were found to be “contaminating” BCM’s water supply system.
Ngwenya said the metro was focusing on residents who have connected their tanks to municipal water supply system.
“[These tanks] need to be inspected by our water inspectors to ensure that there is no contamination of municipal water by untreated rainwater from the tanks. This is a basic control measure.”
He said the bylaw did give BCM the right to issue “fines against those that do not comply”.
Monday’s statement marks a shift in BCM’s language.
On Thursday, Ngwenya was reported in the Dispatch’s Off Track climate and environment page as saying: “The question of a levy will be informed by inspections to conducted where necessary ...”
At that point BCM levies would be determined by what laws applied to “charges on the use of boreholes/licencing ...”
BCM DA leader Sue Bentley said: “Sanity has prevailed.”
She called the attempt to levy tanks “completely misguided. Residents should have been applauded by the municipality for adopting tangible water saving measures.”
Bentley said residents would have united against the attempt and BCM would have lost in court.
Save Nahoon environmentalist Kevin Harris said: "One does not need to be a plumber to know that it's impossible to feed water into a municipal supply from a lower pressure source to a high pressure source. In the advent of completely lost main feed supply the likelihood of an anti-syphon event causing it to enter would be nominal. Besides who would want to feed harvested precious rainwater back into a municipal feed?"
BCM continues to claim that their efforts are being “misinterpreted”.
In their statement, they called for residents for “co-operation on the use of alternative water sources disclosure/registration process (sic)”.
Ngwenya said the drought had led to residents “practising rain harvesting and finding other water sources” which was “encouraging but it needs to be properly managed or else it can be a hazard”.
The problem was not the hundreds of communal tanks installed by BCM, but where residential tanks were connected to BCM’s supply.
He said BCM was legally empowered to levy monthly, annual or one-off charges “where water services are available; regardless of whether such services are utilised”.
He urged residents to complete “this simple disclosure/registration process”.
He said “any” alternative water sources “outside the municipal network” had to be registered.
BCM needed the information “in order to gain confidence in who has opted for other water sources. We have also noted that there are circulating voice notes that are discouraging people from submitting forms and groups threatening court action.
“Our doors remain open for any inquiries or clarities around this matter.”-DispatchLIVE