Shurugwi recovers $1.5mln through prepaid meters

SHURUGWI Town Council has recovered about 20 percent of money owed by ratepayers through the installation of prepaid water meters and payment plans.

The council is owed more than $7 million by both residents and companies.

In an interview, town council chairperson, Mr Tsungai Makore, said the local authority was recovering the debt bit by bit although it might take longer.

“We are owed a total of $7,8 million by the ratepayers. Of that figure, residents owe us $3,4 million while the rest is owed to us by corporates. As a council we had to put measures in place to recover the debt as we were struggling to operate due to the debt,” he said.

“We put prepaid meters and we also encouraged residents to make payment plans and that has really worked because so far we have managed to recover about $1.5 million, which is about 20 percent of the figure owed to us.”

Mr Makore said residents who got prepaid meters were from the central business district.

He added that council will continue to install more meters in other residential places.

“For now more than 1 000 residents from the CBD got prepaid meters and the council continues to roll out meters in other residential areas because we are hoping that the system will decrease the debt even more while it increases our revenue,” said Mr Makore.

He said that the local authority has embarked on awareness campaigns to engage residents on the importance of paying bills.

“We have also engaged residents through our awareness campaign meetings aimed at educating them about the importance of paying their bills so that the council is able to function properly,” he said.

Several local authorities are in favour of installation of prepaid water meters in a move meant to control water consumption and to generate more revenue.