Illegal water connections: A bad practice
Illegal water connections have, for years, been a source of headaches for water utilities across the world.
IT IS a scourge that needs to be dealt with quite sternly if water utilities such as ZINWA and local authorities are to operate more effectively. Illegal water connections have a serious adverse effect on water utilities, which makes their work difficult.
Illegal water connections distort demand for water and jeopardise water utilities’ ability to effectively plan the available water. With water being a finite and strategic resource, illegal water connections should therefore have no place.
These illegal connections also deprive the utilities of the much needed revenue for the operation, maintenance and expansion of the water treatment and distribution system.
Those people connected illegally pay nothing towards the operation and maintenance of the water systems they draw water from and in other words, they are free riders whose costs are borne by those legally connected clients. In cases where illegal water connections are rampant, such developments discourage genuine clients from paying.
Illegal connections take a number of forms and it is imperative that members of the public know and understand them for purposes of helping utilities root out the scourge.
The most common form of illegal connections is that of people who reconnect themselves after being disconnected for non payment of water bills. This has happened in many instances and anyone found wanting is liable to prosecution.
The other form of illegal connections is when someone who is not a ZINWA client connects himself to the network. This includes people who draw water from fire hydrants or those who just connect themselves to the system without the authority of the service provider.
There are also those people who may be clients of water utilities but are engaged in illegal activities such as meter by-passing. This is a form of illegal connection that takes place when client installs pipes or other components to allow himself or herself to access water before the meter so as to avoid paying for the water.
All these forms of illegal water connections bleed water utilities and the public need to join hands with entities such as ZINWA to weed out cases of illegal connections.
When utilities deal away with illegal connections, they are able to accurately project water demand, something which will greatly assist in improving water supply to genuine clients.
By their very nature, illegal water connections are largely a result of unethical conduct on the part of clients, who usually connive with staff from utilities. For example, ZINWA has witnessed a number of cases where unscrupulous prospective clients work in cahoots with staff members to have water connected to their premises without following due procedure, resulting in illegal water connections. In some cases clients are duped into parting ways with their hard earned money by delinquent staff members and end up being illegally connected to the system. Where such behaviour has been discovered, the Authority has taken corrective measures to rid itself of illegal connections and delinquent staff members.
However the war against illegal connections cannot be won without the cooperation of the public. The public need to report to ZINWA any cases or suspected cases of illegal water connections.
It is in their interest to rid the system of illegal connections. Illegal water connections should have no place in a modern society. People should report such practices to their nearest ZINWA offices.
◆ For more information you can contact the ZINWA Corporate Communications and Marketing Department on pr@zinwa.co.zw or callcentre@zinwa.co.zw. You can also like the Zimbabwe National Water Authority Facebook page or alternatively follow us on Twitter @zinwawater