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The city also gets its money immediately as in other pay-as-you-use schemes.
“We will also be able to reduce the number of debtors as those who do not pay will not have the water. We will also be able to evenly spread water coverage as residents reduce their daily uptakes,” he said.
The department is owed over US$100 million in unpaid water bills.
The city has 192 000 properties connected to the city’s water system but estimates show that up to 20 000 properties, mostly those under housing co-operatives, either use bulk meters or are not legally connected.
This means there are households in Harare that are using water without paying for it.
Eng Zvobgo said each household in Mabvuku and Highfield is getting a new meter following discoveries that the two suburbs had the oldest meters.
“Without the water meters we used to estimate that water consumption in Mabvuku was five cubic meters per month but we have since discovered that households use up to 12 cubic meters per month,” he said.
He said in other suburbs the department’s meter readers identify non-functional meters.
Eng Zvobgo said the roll-out programme will end in June next year. He said the programme has been extended to June next year after it was discovered some of the piping that connects the meters needed replacement.
But replacement in Mabvuku is expected to run until December and Highfield in March next year.
He said other measures the department was taking to reduce water consumption to a maximum of 15 cubic metres per month include taking the conservation campaigns to schools and the installation of pressure reducing valves to water mains that feed into suburbs.
Online Reporter