|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
By Lovemore Chazingwa
In a bid to improve service delivery and efficiency, Chegutu Municipality has committed to continuing on its drive in the installation of prepaid water meters in areas that had been left out.
The move is meant to enable the local authority to record accurate readings for billing purposes, at the same time improve service delivery. This is opposed to a situation whereby the social services provider relies on estimates for billing, much to the chagrin of ratepayers.
The latest lap will see six hundred more meters installed in Wards 1, 2, 3 and the central business district (CBD) of the Mashonaland West town, a public notice reveals. The move comes at a time some of the meters are regarded as obsolete.
Town communications manager Brian Nkiwane shed more light on this refreshing development.
“The idea is that we realized that we were incurring losses as council through the billing system loophole. We engaged a contractor, Smart Metres, which initially installed four hundred meters in the first phase. Now, they will add a further six hundred to make them a thousand in the aforementioned areas.
“We realized most meters are either old, damaged, or in some places non-existent. We are moving in to replace all these and install new smart meters. Our aim is to improve efficiency through accurate readings for the correct billing. Going forward, we are moving to install these new meters in our Ward 8 water project so that by the time we commission it, the smart meters will be in place,” Nkiwane said in a wired interview.
Chegutu Municipality has hogged the limelight for being dogged by serious disease outbreaks chief among them the infamous cholera disaster.
Fresh, clean potable, and affordable water supply becomes a critical issue in health management by the town. The improvement of service delivery in the freshwater supply side renders improved accurate readings incumbent for the town coffers
