The Bulawayo City Council has come under pressure to fully justify its planned rollout of pre-paid water meters, with a leading human rights organisation warning that the policy risks public resistance unless residents are adequately consulted and their concerns addressed.
The Matabeleland Institute for Human Rights (MIHR) said the council had yet to explain why it was opting for pre-paid water meters or how it intended to protect vulnerable households from the possible social and economic consequences.
The local authority recently announced that it was moving ahead with plans to introduce pre-paid water meters, replacing the current post-paid billing system with one requiring residents to pay for water in advance, similar to pre-paid electricity.
The move, which previously faced resistance from residents, now has government backing, with council saying procurement processes and implementation modalities are being finalised before the system is rolled out.
According to the council, the initiative forms part of a broader revenue enhancement strategy as it battles mounting unpaid rates and service charges amounting to ZiG2,728 billion.
Residents account for the largest share of the debt at ZiG1,950 billion, representing 71% of total arrears, while industry owes ZiG586 million and Government departments ZiG191 million.
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MIHR coordinator Khumbulani Maphosa said the council should first win public confidence through meaningful engagement rather than simply announcing the policy.
He said council had a responsibility to explain why it had chosen the pre-paid water model and convince residents that their concerns had been taken seriously.
Maphosa said residents had consistently raised concerns over the affordability of pre-paid meters, increasing water tariffs, the commodification of water and the possible removal of social safety nets that protect vulnerable households.
“They have raised concerns of expensive prepaid meters, they have raised concerns of rising cost of water; they have raised concerns of water commodification and also they have raised concerns of scrapping these water social safety nets,” he said.
“The residents have also raised concerns about the advent of people using unsafe water sources in order to circumvent or to run away from paying from the prepaid meters.
“So, they need to tell us what they have done, how they are putting in place to respond to those legitimate concerns.”
Maphosa also urged the council to clarify whether its proposed programme was linked to the government’s broader water reform agenda, which has attracted criticism from civic groups.
“They need to decouple their directive from the national government water privatisation agenda,” Maphosa said.
He said the council should clearly explain whether its initiative was independent or part of that broader policy direction.
Maphosa said transparency and stakeholder buy-in would determine whether the policy succeeded.
“The issue of adopting an infamous strategic ambiguity to policy directives does not work.
“Any policy succeeds by explaining it to the people and getting the consent and the support of the stakeholders in this case, it is the residents,” he said.
During a recent media briefing, Bulawayo chamber secretary Sikhangele Zhou defended the proposed rollout, saying the council viewed pre-paid water meters as a key pillar of its revenue enhancement strategy.
She said the local authority was still completing procurement and implementation processes before the system could be introduced.
Zhou also said council had registered Amanzi AkoBulawayo, a standalone water utility that will oversee the city’s water services, and had appointed an interim board while arrangements were being made to operationalise the company.