adminMunicipal Reporter
Foreign and local companies are jostling to supply Harare City Council with prepaid water meters, forcing the local authority to set stringent measures for selecting the best supplier.
Town clerk Dr Tendai Mahachi said the selected companies would be expected to install 2 000 meters in the Avenues area at no cost to council.
The city would choose a potential partner based on the type of meters the companies would install during the pilot project.
“Our partners who will be selected are the ones who will pay for the pilot project,” he said. “After the pilot we can then decide the type of meter and the company which we will partner with.
“There are many bids but we have to make sure that whatever is being sold meets our specifications,” said Dr Mahachi.
“Firstly, the gadget should be a smart meter. The second bit is that it must be able to communicate with a gadget from a radius of about 1km. If a person is driving 1km away he should be able to know that a certain smart meter has been paid for or not.”
He said council workers would no longer walk from door to door to collect meter readings but that the smart meter should communicate its status with a vehicle which is 1km away.
“The meters must be durable. We do not want something which after two years or five years is broken down. From the pilot project we will select the relevant partner because the partner is also going to fund the roll out programme and we will pay back over a period of time,” he said.
He said Harare required at least 300 000 to 400 000 smart meters.
Dr Mahachi said the advantages of a smart meter was that it could indicate to the resident the amount of water they have paid for.
That way residents could manage their water consumption, he said.
Peter Tanyanyiwa
Online Reporter