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Elita Chikwati Senior Reporter
The Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) has installed 16 063 prepaid water meters in growth points, small towns and rural service centres.
The rollout is targeting domestic clients, businesses, schools, churches, parastatals and other institutions.
These meters are being installed for clients free of charge.
ZINWA is targeting to install 35 000 prepaid water meters by the end of 2022 for its clients.
The introduction of prepaid water meters is expected to help in the improvement of service delivery with resources previously used in activities such as meter readings and bills distribution now being directed towards other service delivery endeavours such as attending to breakdowns.
In a statement, Zinwa corporate communications and marketing manager, Mrs Marjorie Munyonga the rollout of the prepaid water meters followed the successful piloting of the concept in Mvurwi and Chivhu between 2019 and 2021 when the full-scale rollout commenced.
“Of the total installed meters, 2 616 have been installed in Hwange, 5 305 in Karoi, 2 419 in Mutoko, 1 829 in Nyanga, 1425 in Filabusi, 1002 in Murehwa while the remainder is in Chivhu and Mvurwi.
“Installation of prepaid water meters in Gokwe started on Monday. The reception of the prepaid water meters has been quite encouraging and overwhelmingly positive,” she said.
Mrs Munyonga said the introduction of prepaid water meters is expected to place clients in firm control of their water consumption patterns as they are now able to pay for their water requirements in advance, hence preventing debt build-ups which were common under the post-paid metering system.
“Clients are now able to prepay their water and get tokens from wherever they are using mobile payment platforms OneMoney and Ecocash.
“Prepaid meters are also helping eliminate some of the billing challenges that have been a bone of contention between Zinwa and its clients, such as the use of estimates for those clients who had no or had non-functional meters,” she said.
Mrs Munyonga said clients who had debts from the post-paid metering system will also be able to access water while servicing their debts with an arrangement for part of any payments they make to be channelled towards the retirement of the legacy debt.
Online Reporter