Dams body hauls Harare Council to Court
Saturday, 10 April 2010 19:23
UPPER Manyame Sub-Catchment Council is suing the Harare City Council for allegedly defaulting in paying close to a million dollars in levies for water abstracted from various supply dams. In papers filed at the High Court in January, the Catchment Council is demanding that Harare pays US$894 885.20 for water from various dams within the catchment area it manages.
The dams include Chivero, Manyame, Seke and Harava.
The council says at the time of drafting the summons, it had invoiced Harare for US$944 885,20, but only US$50 000 had been paid as at the date of the summons.
Harare continues to fail to settle the debt despite demand, Upper Manyame alleges.
The council says the amount owed is broken into three invoices for a total of 410 820 megalitres of water.
Upper Manyame also wants Harare to pay interest of 5% per annum on the figure from the day of service of the summons filed on January 7.
It also wants Harare to meet costs of the suit on an attorney-client scale.
But in its opposing papers, Harare argues that it owns the dams in question, and as such, Upper Manyame erroneously calculated the figure due.
It argues that Upper Manyame is using a formula that makes it seem as if Harare is abstracting water from the said dams yet it is only storing its water in those dams.
“The defendant is, therefore, not obliged to pay for the abstraction or utilisation of water from its water sources,” Harare argues. “Instead, the defendant is obliged to pay levies for storage of water in these dams..”
The City Council also argues that the levying of storage of water in dams is a mischief aimed at discouraging dam owners, particularly farmers, from unnecessarily storing water in their dams at the expense of downstream
users.
The measure was instituted before conclusion of negotiations on the appropriate levy and formula for calculating the same, it argues.
Ratepayers will be prejudiced if a wrong formula is used, argues Harare which also denies owing the amount being claimed and challenges Upper Manyame to provide proof thereof.
The City Council denies receiving the said invoices and argues that it received four invoices between June 4 2009 and January 15 2010, amounting to a total of $321 852,23.
It also strongly refutes an invoice covering February to March 2009, which totals US$47 24,84 saying the multicurrency regime was not yet in place then.
“The defendant cannot pay amounts that were erroneously calculated,” Harare said. “The parties were negotiating on the appropriate formula and the amount that may be due, and the plaintiff abandoned the negotiations and approached the court.
“The defendant will continue to pay what it considers reasonable rates. Until the parties reach an agreement..”
Harare wants the claim dismissed with costs.
The suit comes at a time when the City Council has said it is owed about US$60 million in unpaid water bills by residents, government departments and the Chitungwiza municipality, forcing it to resort to disconnecting
defaulters.
BY JENNIFER DUBE