KADOMA municipality is set to increase water charges by 100% and further raise other charges like burial fees and rent in their proposed $47,69 million budget for 2013.
Report by Blessed Mhlanga, Staff Reporter
The budget was unveiled last Thursday. If it sails through council, this would be the first time Kadoma has increased rates since 2009.
The budget is set to see council increase its revenue collections from last year’s $12,7 million to $13 million following upward adjustments, particularly on water bills.
Fixed charges on water will go up from $2,50 to $5, burial fees increase from $10 to $15, while metered water charges rise from 30c per kilolitre to 50c.
Other rates which have also gone up include rentals of council property which will see sitting tenants occupying SQ and GB houses paying rentals of $7 per month for single rooms up from $5 last year and $15 for two rooms up from $10.
Finance committee chairman Tinashe Mugwira said the local authority had no option, but to increase water charges because water treatment chemicals they accessed through donations from United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) last year were exhausted and they now have to purchase them.
“We have to buy our own water treatment chemicals as opposed to getting donations from Unicef, as used to happen in the past. We are, therefore, left with no option, but to charge a cost recovery fee,” he said.
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Mugwira said council was struggling to pay its undertakers a living wage owing to the low burial rates the local authority was charging, forcing them to review the rates upwards.
