The Sunday Mail
Michael Chideme
Moving in line with modern trends in water delivery management, Harare City Council is piloting the use of pre-paid smart water meters in the Central Business District, the Avenues and selected Northern suburbs.
An initial 2 000 prepaid water meters are being installed in the Avenues, Central Business District, industrial areas and selected suburbs on a pilot basis ahead of the March 2016 city-wide roll-out.
The final roll-out will be done over a period of five years as a cautionary measure.
Recently, the city held a stakeholder workshop to seek residents’ and stakeholder buy-in.
The pilot programme is targeting properties with continuous water supply, customers with non-functional meters, industrial and commercial and new housing projects.
Pre-paid smart water meters are principally a water management tool designed to enable the residents to manage their water consumption, to manage internal losses and to budget the money they spent and ensure they are billed accurately.
Pre-paid water meters allow the city to manage water consumption and corresponding revenue. They pin-point where leaks could be occurring hence help reduce non-revenue water.
The meters have capacity to show consumer consumption trends, unusual consumption patterns and collection arrears. Estimations are that the city can reduce costs by close to 30 percent as a result of reduction of non-revenue water.
Smart metering is a water conservation tool which will enable Harare residents to optimise water use and help the city to equitably distribute the commodity to all suburbs.
The City of Harare can, therefore, better manage the available water which could be enough for all the residents.
The pilot programme which is part of the city’s enhanced stakeholder consultation will help determine the ideal system for Harare.
We have, however, received objections to this project from individual residents, residents associations and political parties.
We have also received requests for preference and priority from certain residents who want to have the pre-paid meters installed or tried.
The pilot programme is part of the extended consultation in order to secure stakeholder support.
A World Bank study indicates that Harare is not the first African city to go the pre-paid water meter route.
The meters have already been implemented in Johannesburg, Kampala, Nairobi, Nakuru, Maputo, Lusaka, Windhoek, Mogale City and Maseru.
