Guzzlers get the message after Cape Town's naming and shaming blamestorm

Most of Cape Town’s top 100 water users have been removed from a list which revealed their street names last month.

Xanthea Limberg‚ the mayoral committee member for water‚ said on Thursday this was because they had “taken steps to identify and fix leaks on their private property”.

The city council is also considering a “debt write-off” for the top water consumer in Manenberg‚ and Limberg said a leak on the person's property was fixed by the municipality.

• Pensioner in drought stricken Cape Town watches hundreds of litres of water go to wasteCape Town has been declared a disaster area because of the crippling drought. But every day a pensioner from Manenberg on the Cape Flats watches as many litres of the precious resource goes to waste. 

Pensioner Shirley Woolgar‚ 73‚ said she was taking sleeping medication to cope with anxiety after receiving a bill of more than R41 000.

“It is not clear whether the top user in Manenberg is the same person... but the leak of the top consumer according to the city’s data has been fixed and a water management device has been installed‚” said Limberg.

But Woolgar said her meter was still racing round.

“This is all getting too much for me. What if my bill climbs to R50 000 this month?” she asked TimesLive on Thursday.

More than two weeks ago officials and mayoral committee member Siyabulela Mamkeli visited her home and told her she was the highest water consumer in the area‚ she said.

She asked Mamkeli for help but was still waiting.

“It’s so bad now‚ the leak is just getting worse.”

• Advice to those in the grip of Cape Town droughtThink twice before saying goodbye to your dead lawn — there might be signs of life. 

Mamkeli said he had assured Woolgar she was not at fault. He had asked the water inspector to address the situation and would follow up.

“We discovered a leak at the property. We saw it and my concern was that she was clearly indigent - so how was she going to fix it?” he said.

The city's top guzzler‚ a man from Crawford‚ might have to pay only part of his bill after discovering a leak was to blame.

“There is now a rebate request‚” said Limberg. “Rebates for leaks are considered when leaks are underground and not visible‚ but property owners need to make application for this and a set criteria is applied when granting a rebate.”

Seventy-nine of the top 100 water guzzlers had been removed from the list after fixing leaks.

“This is the outcome that we want: for residents to take responsibility for consumption and at the same time‚ to reduce consumption‚” she said.

-TMG Digital/The Times