ZINWA introduces e-billing
THE Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) has introduced electronic billing for its clients starting with November being the pilot bills to be sent on clients’ mobile phones. At least 25 000 clients whose mobile numbers are in the ZINWA database are set to receive their bills through their mobile phones as the authority moves into to improve service delivery and bring convenience to its clients.
The introduction of these electronic bills are part of a concoction of measures that the authority is putting in place as it gets refocused into a highly customer centric organisation.
With over 80 000 clients for both raw and clear water nationwide, the introduction of electronic bills will certainly bring convenience to clients some of whom have been complaining about the late delivery of their bills. The bills, which are sent through Short Message Service (SMS) ensure that all clients get their bills simultaneously unlike in the era of physical bills where various clients would get their bills at different times as it would take ZINWA operators at the various stations more than a day to finish distributing bills to clients.
This development will bring the much needed convenience for those clients who are not resident at their properties as they no longer need to travel to places to where the properties are to get their bills. They are now able to get their bills on the go.
Electronic bills will also allow clients to keep their billing records easily as they can store their bills on their mobile phones or other devices as opposed to one having to keep a physical file at home or in the office where they are susceptible to damage. The paper bills also end up as litter for clients once they deem the records as no longer relevant. Electronic bills will address all these challenges. The electronic bills are also coming in to augment the various payment methods that ZINWA already has such as the use of Point of Sale Machines, mobile money transfers and bank transfers. One can now settle his or her bills without waiting to receive a physical bill.
This new billing also gives property owners to keep track of water use at their various properties.
Over the years, ZINWA has sometimes found itself at loggerheads with some clients leasing out their houses at growth points, small towns and rural service centres where it supplies treated, because the tenants would be withholding bills from property owners.
When the debts balloon to a point where the authority would resort to disconnection of supplies or legal action, the clients would in turn accuse the authority of not sending out bills to them. Now with personalised electronic billing, such complaints are set to reduce.
For the authority, the introduction of electronic bills means that all the time and human resources that used to be deployed for the purposes of distributing bills to clients will now be channelled towards other productive causes at the various water supply stations.
In most cases, operators at the stations would do the distribution of the bills and with this new development, the energy for bill distribution will now be redirected towards improvement of service delivery for the benefit of the clients.
ZINWA clients across the country are therefore implored to take advantage of this innovation by the authority and provide their mobile contacts to ZINWA operators or their nearest ZINWA offices.
Those supplying the details are advised to ensure that they also provide their correct account numbers as well. Clients can also provide their details through the ZINWA National Call Centre.
The authority will keep these details in strict confidence in line with the laws of Zimbabwe and the guidelines provided in the ZINWA Client Service Charter.