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Michael Magoronga Midlands Correspondent
Cash-strapped Kwekwe City Council has shelved the rolling out of the prepaid water meter project due to lack of resources, among other challenges. The local authority was set to become one of the first in the country to roll out prepaid water meters after a successful pilot project that saw more than 300 meters from three different companies being connected across the mining town for testing.

Kwekwe Mayor Councillor Angeline Kasipo said the lack of adequate resources left the local authority with limited options.
“As you can see the economic climatic conditions are not favourable,” she said. “So, we have decided to shelve the project as we cannot raise the foreign currency the companies are demanding.”

Besides forex shortages, Clr Kasipo said there were also some anomalies that were discovered during the pilot programme.
“It was noted also that the meters were not linking well with the treasury department such that they do not report when they are tempered with.

So, it leaves room for unscrupulous ratepayers to temper with meter readings and it was going to be difficult for the council to detect that. “We also decided that the issue should be dealt with so that when they are tempered with it is noted by the treasury department.” Clr Kasipo said the prepaid water meter project was going to go a long way in recovering more than $46 million the local authority is owed by ratepayers.

“Indeed, it was going to help us recover the money, but there is nothing we can do about that as the current economic climatic conditions are not favourable for such projects,” she said.