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George Maponga in Masvingo

Masvingo City Council has shelved plans to introduce pre-paid water meters citing runaway costs of rolling out the project in the country’s oldest town with more than 100 000 residents.

The ancient city had intended to have a trial run of prepaid water meters at newly constructed houses in Mucheke D suburb before the plan fell through.

Close to 100 new houses were built in Mucheke D and council had hoped to start the introduction of prepaid water meters.

Mayor Collins Maboke has, however, revealed that Masvingo City has indefinitely shelved the plans citing prohibitive costs.

“We had hoped to roll-out prepaid water meters in the city starting with close to 100 newly-built houses in Mucheke D as a pilot project but we have since shelved the plans because of costs involved. The costs of the pre-paid water meters are way too high and beyond the capacity of our council,” said Councillor Maboke.

“So, for now, we can safely say the issue of pre-paid water meters is now dead in the water. Maybe it’s something that can be reconsidered in the future depending on circumstances then.”

The Masvingo mayor reassured residents that his council is pulling all the stops to make sure there is adequate water to cater for residents’ needs.

Pre-paid water meters would plug revenue leakages caused by defaulting residents.

Masvingo plans to embark on a water augmentation project that will duplicate pumping, purification, conveyancing and storage capacity to take daily water output to 50 mega litres.

This will be enough to cater for the city’s estimated over 120 000 residents amid reports that existing infrastructure could only meet the needs of less than half the existing population.