TENDAI BHEBE IN BULAWAYO
Bulawayo residents are up in arms with the city fathers after water bills went up to between ZWL$19 000 and ZWL$100 000 from about ZWL$1 000, at a time most suburbs barely receive water, Business Times can report.
Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA) chairperson Ambrose Sibindi said they have received reports of “shocking bills”.
“Our worry is that Bulawayo, especially last year, was not having any water, as residents were receiving water maybe twice or so per week. And now we are confused as to why the residents are receiving such high bills considering that on average a house is supposed to be paying ZWL$1000 per month,” Sibindi said.
“If the residents have been paying per month as per indications, why are they now getting higher water bills at the same time we end up thinking the estimates that are happening are not the ones that they are indicating. If you follow very well the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) is no longer taking the bills or reading the meters as they are supposed to be.”
He said most of the bills are estimates and the high bills will have a psychological impact on residents. Sibindi said residents have to take meter readings to BCC.The BPRA coordinator Emmanuel Ndlovu wrote a letter to BCC this week on the high water bills.
“This letter serves to raise concerns over the recent exorbitant water bills that residents have received from BCC. Residents have in the past weeks received absurd water bills ranging from ZWL$19 000 to ZWL $100 000. The problem of high water bills was first reported by residents in Mpopoma and spread to other areas.
“The claim by the Town clerk that residents are consuming an average of 750 litres per person per day is an absurd. BPRA has been in the process of monitoring the BCC billing system in the past week and after accompanying some residents to council offices BPRA noted cases that reflected faulty billing,” reads part of the letter.
Contacted for a comment, the BCC spokesperson, Nesisa Mpofu said the Covid-19 pandemic has affected the operations of the local authority resulting in billing being based on estimates calculated using the household allocations.
However, as far as June and July 2021, the billing has not been based on actual readings and therefore, consumers should expect exceptionally high water bills. It is with this in mind that residents are being encouraged to consume within their household allocations of 650litres per day,” she said.
