The Sunday Mail
Debra Matabvu
HARARE City Council is set for a bruising fight with residents following revelations that the municipality will not backtrack on plans to demand payment first for water and will introduce pre-paid meters this October.
The system will ensure consumers in the capital city pay for water before using it as opposed to the prevailing situation where the local authority billed residents and other users after a month’s consumption.
The idea to introduce pre-paid water meters was mooted early this year, triggering an uproar as consumers argued that this was unconstitutional because the supreme law states that everyone has a right to water.
Section 77 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe says every person has the “right to safe, clean and portable water, and (b) sufficient food and the State must take reasonable legislative and other measure, within the limits of the resources available to it, to achieve the progressive realisation of this right”.
The provision has been interpreted by human rights watchdogs to mean that right would be taken away in the event one fails to pay to access water.
Activists further say that various international conventions make water an inalienable right and demanding payment first will hit the poor hard.
Harare City Council water and distribution manager Engineer Hosiah Chisango told The Sunday Mail that the pre-paid water meter system would be launched within 45 days and would be implemented over seven years. “The submission of tenders is closing on the 18th (of August) and the pilot of project of about 2 000 pre-paid water meters will begin in October,” he said.
“We are going to start in the CBD, Avenues, Milton Park and other areas surrounding the CBD. Before we begin the pilot project we are going to educate residents, businesses and companies about the new water prepaid water meters.
“It seems most residents, businesspeople and councillors are resisting the system because they do not know much about them.” After the pilot project, at least 200 000 meters will be installed in the first phase beginning March 2016 at an estimated cost of US$60 million. A single meter will cost US$250.
Eng Chisango said Harare City Council was finalising a system to harmonise water charges with other utility fees like housing, sewerage and refuse collection.
