Kwekwe moves towards pre-paid water meters

KWEKWE City residents owe the local authority around $1,5 billion in unpaid rates and water tariffs and the local authority now wants to switch to pre-paid meters as indications are that ratepayers are likely to continue defaulting.

This emerged during the on-going 2023 budget consultations where the council is seeking to increase its budget from last year’s $7,4 billion to US$10 million.

It was also revealed that around 70 percent of Kwekwe residents were not servicing their bills, with the majority arguing that they wanted the local authority to install prepaid water meters first.

“I have not been paying and I will continue to default until they provide us with prepaid water meters,” said Mrs Melody Mafuta of Mbizo.

Mrs Mafuta said the local authority should emulate Zesa and introduce pre-paid meters.

“Zesa has now reduced what it is owed through the prepaid meter system. Today if you don’t have money to buy your electricity tokens, you stay in darkness and this is the route local authorities should take with water so that we get to a win-win situation,” she said.

Another resident, Mr Charles Phiri of Amaveni said their area sometimes went for months without water.

“After going for months without water, we then receive huge bills based on estimates and in the end we just ignore them,” he said.

In its new budget, Kwekwe city is proposing a US dollar denominated budget with residents in high density suburbs expected to part with at least US$43 per month up from an average of US$11 last year.

Kwekwe City proposed an 85 cents per cubic meter charge for water for high density with an additional fixed charge of US$4.

Sewer collection will be pegged at US$5, refuse US$6, while public lighting levy, education and fire levy will all be pegged at US$1 each.

In 2022, Kwekwe city used a $7,5 billion budget before they reviewed it with a 500 percent rates increase citing inflation.

The residents said the budget was unjustified.

“If I am calculating well, this means that a resident will be parting with an average of US$50 per month and to be honest most people cannot afford such figures every month given the situation,” said Mr Tery

Mlambo.

Finance director Mrs Rejoice Dandira said the local authority was struggling to provide services as ratepayers were defaulting on payments.

“Our residents do not service their bills and this affects service delivery. For example, in September, only 27 percent of residents paid up meaning the majority of the residents did not pay their bills,” said Mrs Dandira.

She said the local authority was owed $1,5 billion by ratepayers, whilst the council also owed its service providers about $500 million.

“The situation has left us with dry coffers and we are even failing to pay salaries and pensions,” said Mrs Dandira.

She said water treatment chemicals were now expensive and suppliers were demanding US dollars.

“The rainy season is a tricky one for us as we require 30 tonnes of aluminium sulphate to clean the water due to turbidity. The situation becomes very difficult for us as it becomes even more expensive,” she said.

She said mining activities in the city’s environs were also contaminating water, making it difficult to purify.