Gweru residents have once again rejected council’s proposal to switch to pre-paid water meters starting from next year.
By Brenna Matendere
The residents made the decision during a meeting convened by the local authority at Town House on Friday to gather views of stakeholders in preparation for the 2019 budget formulation.
The sentiments were also echoed at ward meetings held in the city’s suburbs on Saturday and Sunday by council authorities.
This was the second time that the residents have rejected introduction of the pre-paid water meters after snubbing the proposal last year, despite the council feeling that the installation of pre-paid water meters would resolve the issue of non-payment of water by residents.
A report on Gweru council financials released by the local authority last week indicated that council was owed $62 852 380 by residents and industry, an increase from $55 548 650 as at December 31, 2017.
Gweru Residents’ Forum chairperson Charles Mazorodze said the residents could not accept the pre-paid water meters now following an outbreak of typhoid and cholera that claimed 10 lives in the city.
“What the residents are saying is that last year they rejected the new water meters and so their position has not changed,” Mazorodze said.
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“The rejection of the water meters has been made stronger by the typhoid outbreak and prospects of cholera that show the implications of unavailability of water.
“If the pre-paid water meters are installed and then we have some residents failing to pay and therefore being deprived of water, that is the calamity we will have.”
Mazorodze also said according to the country’s Constitution: clean, potable safe water was a right for all residents.
“Water is a constitutional right. That is why you see that the courts do allow councils to cut water supplies to those who owe it,” he said.
“We have courts cases that have set that precedent. So we cannot have someone failing to get water at their houses because they will have failed to raise money to purchase water units.”
In Harare, the council plans to install 50 000 pre-paid water meters by the end of the year in areas that receive uninterrupted supplies despite objections by residents.
