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Herald Reporter
The City of Harare is mulling the installation of prepaid water meters on all households, a development that is expected to resolve the issue of overcharging consumers. Addressing councillors among other senior council staff, Town Clerk Dr Tendai Mahachi said council had considered the idea to avoid overbilling ratepayers.

“Meter readers who were giving information to council were not held accountable and the smart meters are meant to address the issues,” said Dr Mahachi.

“The smart meters will help to increase revenue and one is required to charge before water usage and they have proven to be cheaper for the households.

“You will be charging before it shuts off and it informs us when someone is interfering with the system. The justification is exactly to improve our revenue and we have started test-runs to see how they work in our                                system.”

Dr Mahachi said council would start installing the smart meters in the Central Business District and the Avenues area early next year.
“We will synchronise the installation of the smart meters and the availability of water in all areas,” he                     said.

The city, said Dr Mahachi, has set aside US$6 million from the loan obtained from China’s Export and Import Bank to buy the first batch of more than 100 000 metres.

“We want more than 500 000 and we will do this in phases. When there are Zesa power outages, there is a battery backup which works for a minimum of eight hours and installation will start in January next year.

“The current meter readers will be redeployed to other areas,” said Dr Mahachi.
He further told the delegates that the city’s top priority was the refurbishment of the Morton Jaffray water treatment plant.

In a sideline interview Dr Mahachi said council has since applied to have the mandate of collecting traffic fines which are being pocketed by the   police.

“We have since applied so that we can collect traffic fines which will go towards the city’s improvement. We have also lobbied for municipal courts like what is done in Johannesburg and Cape Town.

“In terms of our application, we want the support from various Ministries so that they give us a nod and by January we will be having something,” he said.

Dr Mahachi also said the commuter omnibus holding bays are expected to be complete in the next three weeks.