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Challenging the adequacy of free basic water in Phiri, Soweto, South Africa
In July 2006, five residents of Phiri, a poor community in Soweto, South Africa, brought an application before the Johannesburg High Court to challenge the amount of free basic water supplied.
The applicants have requested the Court to declare that the decisions of Johannesburg Water to limit free basic water supply to 6,000 per household per month is unconstitutional and unlawful.
The allocation of this amount is challenged as being insufficient. In addition, the applicants are challenging the installation of pre-paid water meters which automatically switch the water supply off once the limit has been reached, unless the customer pays for more.
Adequacy of the 6,000 litre basic free water
Section 27(1)(b) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa guarantees the right of access to sufficient water.
Based on expert evidence, including that of Dr Peter Gleick, (a world expert on water rights), the application argues that the amount of free basic water supplied to the residents of Phiri is insufficient to meet basic needs. Dr Gleick's opinion is that 50 litres per person per day should be the minimum starting point to provide people in the applicants' position with access to sufficient water.
The insufficiency is compounded by the fact that it is based on an amount per household per month rather than per person per day. The free allocation of 6,000 litres per household per month is calculated on the basis of providing 20 litres per day per person to a presumed household of eight people. But research undertaken by the Coalition Against Water Privatisation in 2004, found that the average Phiri household comprises 16 people.
In addition, Professor Desmond Martin, President of the HIV Clinicians Society, says that the there is a need for more water on a daily basis for people living with HIV/AIDS than for non-HIV infected individuals, in order to ensure their health, standard of living and dignity.
Pre-paid water meters
In March 2004, Johannesburg Water introduced "Operation Gcin'amanzi", a multi-million rand project to upgrade the water infrastructure. Residents argue that they have been persuaded to accept prepayment meters as the 'only' option available besides total disconnection. They had previously been supplied with unlimited water for a flat-rate. According to an earlier statement by Johannesburg Water, the new arrangement reduces the overall average cost to households by about 100 rand per month - from the previous flat rate of 149 rand per month to an average of 39.58 rand per month.
Yet, with the imposition of the prepayment meters, large households in Phiri are often without water for up to two weeks at a time each month because they claim they cannot afford to purchase additional water once the free basic supply is exhausted.
The application
For the last three years Phiri has seen considerable community mobilisation in what residents call their 'battle for water'. Between March 2004 and July 2006, letters of demand were sent to Johannesburg Water and settlement meetings were pursued, but no resolution to the crisis was found. It was in this context that the current application was served in the Johannesburg High Court of South Africa.
The application has been launched under the auspices of the Coalition Against Water Privatisation (a collection of community organizations and progressive NGOs struggling against the negative effects of current water policies on the poor), supported by the Centre for Applied Legal Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand and the Freedom of Expression Institute.
The applicants, with their support organisations, believe this case to be of critical importance in securing the Constitutionally-guaranteed rights of poor people to have access to sufficient water.
The application has been served on the City of Johannesburg, Johannesburg Water (Pty) Ltd. and the Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry by five residents of Phiri who are all unemployed and living in conditions of poverty. The case is being brought on their own behalf and on behalf of their households and all residents of Phiri, as well as in the public interest.
The Court is being asked to order Johannesburg Water to provide a free basic water supply of 50 litres per person per day, and the option of a credit-metered supply installed at the cost of the City of Johannesburg, to the residents of Phiri, Soweto.
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Legal challenge over water policy in a poor community in Phiri
In the application, the first applicant, Lindiwe Mazibuko, explains how, living in a household of 20 unemployed, elderly and young people (and relying largely on her mother's pension of R820 per month), she suffers from the inadequacies of the free basic water supply and the worsening of her daily life of grinding poverty caused by the prepayment water meter installed in her Phiri house in October 2004.
As she attests in her affidavit, the free basic water supply usually lasts the household only until around the 12th day of each month (with 20 people, the 6 kilolitre amount is only enough for each member of the household to flush the toilet less than once every two days or to have a body wash once every four days, leaving no water for drinking, cooking, cleaning etc.) With a prepayment meter, once this free basic amount is exhausted, the water supply is automatically disconnected, leaving the household without water until they can buy water tokens. But, as no-one in the Mazibuko household is employed, there is frequently no money to purchase water tokens and the household must borrow money or go without water until the next pension grant is available.
Grace Munyai, the second applicant, is a care-giver to her niece, who is living with AIDS.
The additional water required to take care of Ms Munyai's niece necessitates a 3km walk to fetch water (from an area of Soweto that still has an unlimited water supply), as the free basic water amount is insufficient to ensure dignified and hygienic conditions and the household has no income to buy water tokens after the exhaustion of the free basic supply.
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Sources: Legal Challenge Over Water Policy in Poor Community in Phiri, Soweto, Centre for Applied Legal Studies, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, The Coalition Against Water Privatisation, Johannesbugr, and the Freedom of Expression Institute, Media Summary 12 July 2006.
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Sources: Lindiwe Mazibuko et al v The City Of Johannesburg, Johannesburg Water (Pty) Ltd, And The Minister Of Water Affairs And Forestry Case, High Court of South Africa, No 06/13865;
;The Independent On-line South Africa,; the Mail and Guardian On-line South Africa; Legal Challenge Over Water Policy in Poor Community in Phiri, Soweto, Centre for Applied Legal Studies, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, The Coalition Against Water Privatisation, Johannesbugr, and the Freedom of Expression Institute, Media Summary 12 July 2006; Legal challenge to Water Policy Launched, Dale T. McKinley, vryeAfrikaan.
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