Department of Water and Sanitation director general Sean Phillips said that municipalities across the country owe the department in excess of R23 billion for water.
It was understood that some municipalities were battling to keep up with payments amid poor revenue collection.
Of the R23 billion debt, municipalities directly owed the government almost R9 billion, while at least R8 billion was owed to the government by waterboards.
Where municipalities get their water from waterboards, and not directly from the department, Phillips said that they still owed waterboards far more.
He revealed the staggering figure at a media briefing in Pretoria on Tuesday.
“In total, the waterboards are owed R14 billion by municipalities, so not all of that debt is passed onto us.
“The waterboards themselves have been able to pay us but they’re sitting with debt owed by municipalities.”
He said that the department was working with the National Treasury to find solutions.
“Some of these measures include the installation of bulk prepaid metres by water boards, creating a greater level of consistency across all the water boards with regards to how they follow up with municipalities and how they implement credit control mechanisms.”
-EWN
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