Seven local authorities have joined hands to find a lasting solution to challenges faced with traditional water billing systems including the adoption of prepaid water meters.
Councils from the southern region were represented at the meeting by officials from Masvingo City, Beitbridge Town Council, Beitbridge Rural District Council and Plumtree.
They were joined by their counterparts from Chegutu Municipality, City of Kadoma and Ruwa Local Board.
The meeting comes amid concerns raised over government’s decision to privatise water management systems in major cities including Harare and Bulawayo, where residents and ratepayers argue that the concept infringes on human rights.
The engineer overseeing Chegutu’s prepaid water meter project Prince Babrus said council was facing significant challenges, with a substantial portion of water going to waste.
“As Chegutu, we used to encounter a number of challenges. We used to have non-revenue water getting to 30% while revenue water was at 70%.
“As a result, some water was not getting to the residents and some did not have meters, so we were losing 70% of the water. We then made consultations with other local authorities and they advised us how they dealt with them. We then decided to try this prepaid water meter pilot project,” Babrus said.
Chegutu has already installed 50 prepaid meters as part of a three-month pilot project, with Babrus indicating that they have been closely monitoring the system’s performance, which has been promising so far.
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“We have been monitoring their performance from the financial, technical and software perspectives. But so far, so good. We have not faced any challenges. However, the adoption of the gadgets afterwards depends on the councillors,” he said.
Plumtree Town Council’s water technician Nkosiphile Dube, said they were cautious and open-minded about the prepaid meters.
“Our position with regards to prepaid water meters, we have an open mind towards the concept. But we are not against it. We actually welcome its introduction in Plumtree.
“But from past experience, we have had challenges with the gadget itself. We have had challenges with the software for prepaid water meter management.
“So once those things are ironed out, I think, we won’t have issues with introducing prepaid water metering to Plumtree Town Council.”
He said a previous attempt to install prepaid meters was halted due to technical difficulties.
“We actually had a previous project where we procured 1 000 meters, but due to challenges with the hardware and the software, we ended up stopping the project.
“But once we have a properly functional system that will incorporate the software and the hardware that is suited to Plumtree conditions, then it is better for us. We can then adopt such a programme.”
Ruwa’s financial director Fatima Mhiti said the prepaid meters had potential to improve revenue collection.
“Remember, councils used to be owed for over two years and we were saying our debt period was 90 days, and this will assist us to reduce it,” she said.
Meanwhile, Bhungane Investment, the technology service provider’s chief executive Innocent Hadebe said prepaid water meters were solving a couple of problems faced by communities.
“The community is struggling because it is paying exorbitant prices in terms of water bills. These are not actual costs of the water that it is using, these are estimates.
“You find that people end up paying such high prices for water. And then for the councils, we are going to help with the revenue collection.
“This will help even the councils to collect their legacy debt. This model works in such a way that you can only use the water that you paid for.”
