Capital pays power debt
Windhoek without water on Tuesday
Phase one of the debt collection measures only apply on one weekday, but NamPower has already outlined nine phases.
The Windhoek municipality (CoW) announced on Friday that NamPower's plan to cut off defaulters' power supply will not affect residential areas in and on the outskirts of the capital. Groot Aub and Brakwater are out of trouble after the council took measures to pay off the debt.This according to Harold Akwenye, the CoW's chief spokesperson. According to Lydia Amutenya, also a spokesperson for the municipality, outstanding debt of N$500 000 had already been paid off by Friday.
NamPower announced early this month that customers owe the national power utility N$1.5 billion, of which N$842 million is overdue. Last week, NamPower's CEO, Simson Haulofu, expressly said that all relevant institutions know about the steps planned to collect the debt. From Monday 5 June, several municipalities' power supply will be interrupted. The same steps apply to Nored, which supplies towns in the north of the country with power, Cenored in Okahandja, as well as the ||Kharas regional council.
If local authorities such as Rehoboth, Mariental, Gobabis and Aranos do not pay by 31 May, the power will be off for four hours - from 11:00 to 15:00 - from the first Monday in June. Phase one of the debt collection measures only applies to one weekday, but NamPower has already outlined nine phases. In phase nine, residents of villages such as Karasburg, Maltahöhe, Gibeon, Bethanie and Tses, Koës, Leonardville and Berseba will have to do without electricity for eight hours a day. Other places that also appear on NamPower's list include Lüderitz, Kalkrand, Stampriet, Gochas, Witvlei and Aroab.
Haulofu says that if NamPower cuts off power supply, it will be at its substations that supply relevant local authorities with electricity. So residents who make use of pre-paid electricity will also be affected, along with hospitals and any other institutions in the vicinity. He expressed sympathy for residents who do pay their power bills and said they should put pressure on local authorities to pay what they owe to NamPower. He said NamPower knows, for example, that Rehoboth's residents make use of pre-paid electricity, but "what is owed to us is not paid to us".
At the same event, NamPower's head of finance, Michael Gotore, said Nored was responsible for 23% of the total amount owed, with Rehoboth owing 10%, Windhoek (the largest customer) 9%, and Erongo RED owing around 5.6% of the total amount owed.
Water interruptions
Meanwhile, Windhoek's residents have been warned that the capital will not have water tomorrow. From 08:00 to 20:00, water supply in the capital will be cut off since NamWater has to repair a leak in the water pipe from the Von Bach dam to Windhoek. NamWater announced the scheduled 12-hour outage on Friday. The national water supplier encourages residents to make the necessary arrangements early to get through the outage, and promises to keep residents informed of progress with the repair work.