Copesville resident’s water bill rises after meter theft

A Copesville man is terrified after finding out that he will be forced to pay more than R200 000 to the municipality following a mistake on his water account.

Rabichand Rajbally is still awaiting answers from the municipality after his bill skyrocketed to R177 000 in September last year.

Rajbally, who lives with his wife said their average utility bill per month was about R2 000 and that he was shocked when he received his municipal account last September.

He said since then, they have been running around back and forth.

Rajbally said he believed the error in his account was linked to a recent theft as his water meter was stolen in June last year when the theft of water meters was rife in Copesville.

Rajbally’s water meter was then replaced with a plastic, non-valuable water meter by the municipality but not without a huge amount of water being lost.

The man said now they do not know what to do because they have been pushed from pillar to post in the municipality, a process that has yielded no results.

The family said they were very worried that the municipality will force them to pay the entire amount and they obviously do not have that kind of money to spare.