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‘Install prepaid water meters to generate revenue’

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ENVIRONMENT, Water and Climate minister Saviour Kasukuwere yesterday urged all local authorities in the country to install prepaid water meters.

OBEY MANAYITI STAFF REPORTER ENVIRONMENT, Water and Climate minister Saviour Kasukuwere yesterday urged all local authorities in the country to install prepaid water meters so as to generate enough revenue to finance the delivery of quality water to their residents.

Kasukuwere was addressing council chairpersons, mayors, council chief executive officers and town clerks at the launch of the Water and Sanitation Service Level Benchmarking Peer Review in Mutare.

He said though the move was likely to face stiff resistance, he was prepared to fight the battle and ensure that prepaid meters are installed.

There has been heavy resistance from members of the public when some councils in the country said they wanted to install pre-paid meters with some human rights organisations threatening to take legal action against the move which they described an infringement on basic human rights.

Service delivery at most local authorities has significantly taken a nose dive with officials blaming it on non-payment of rates by residents and ratepayers.

“We need to make payments. We cannot sustain a situation where services are provided and residents do not pay for them. I think it’s high time when our city fathers ensure that prepaid meters are installed. You have my full support on that one,” Kasukuwere said.

“I am sure there will be a lot of noise on this one, but we are ready for that. We are not saying people should pay for the water, no, but they should pay for the services,” he said much to the applause of delegates.

Speaking at the same event, Local Government minister Ignatius Chombo challenged the local authorities to provide water to residents without fail.

“The situation that obtained should be a thing of the past where most urban areas did not receive water for many hours of the day with some going for months if not years without seeing a drop from their water taps,” he said.

He also bemoaned the poor service delivery rendered by the local authorities in different parts of the country saying the situation should now improve.

The Service Level Benchmarking, which is funded by the World Bank, is a citizenship feedback mechanism for periodically communicating service provider performance.

It was also crafted to prepare, based on the experiences from the data collection and analysis, a manual or standard handbook on the benchmarking process in Zimbabwe.