Prepaid water not feasible for Harare

TANYARADZWA MARAMURA

Residents say the local authority must ensure availability of potable water and fix long-standing challenges including the shambolic billing system before entertaining prospects of prepaid water meters in Harare.

This follows talk that the local authority was mulling introducing prepaid water meters for residents and business in the metropolis.

Harare has failed for years to provide potable running water for residents giving excuses on their failure.

Council has also been accused of multi-million-dollar corruption including abuse of the US$144mn dollar loan facility by a Chinese bank.

Harare Residents Trust Director, Precious Shumba, told Business Times yesterday that prepaid water meters was evidence that council is prioritising profit over service delivery adding the move will only serve to benefit private players instead of residents.

“Prepaid water metres are a proposal by lazy bureaucrats who are conniving with private companies,” Shumba said.

“Residents of Harare are mainly concerned about estimated billing which is a result of the incompetence of council managers. They have employed hundreds of water meter readers who have not gone out to conduct any water meter reading in households. Residents have been making numerous reports of dysfunctional water metres in several suburbs and they have not been replaced,” Shumba said.

“The stuck water meters and dysfunctional water metres need to be replaced so that we have an accurate water metre reading to reflect consumption by the rate payers. It has not happened like that. The thrust to have prepaid water meters is driven by profit making motives rather than enhancing availability of water, improving the quality of the water and ensuring that the water meets the requirements of the ratepayers,” he added.

He said prepaid water metres are not the solution.

“Water meters are a mere means of increasing the revenues for those installing the water metres but it does not change the quantity of water reaching households.”

Shumba said 60% of treated water is lost to leakages and illegal connections, with only 40% reaching residents.

This, he added, has left thousands of residents relying on shallow wells which poses a health hazard.

“So presently we have the 60% water losses through leakages and illegal connections on the water distribution network and only 40% of the treated water is reaching households. These are the priorities that have to be addressed first before we even talk of prepaid water meters for residents. When we talk of water meters we must talk of the conventional water metres so that residents are accurately billed without being necessarily forced to have prepaid water metres, because prepaid water meters means people paying first before receiving the water.”

“In this case, only 40% of the residents of Harare are receiving municipal water, not every day but maybe two to three times a week. The majority of the residents are depending on community boreholes and private boreholes that will not be built and that will not enhance delivery of the water to the residents of Harare.