VICTORIA Falls residents are complaining about high water bills charged by the city council, with some as high as US$100 per month.
This comes at a time when the local authority is considering rolling out prepaid water meters to improve rates collection.
Residents say it seems that the local authority does not do meter readings and relies on estimates.
They have since approached councillors and Victoria Falls Combined Residents Association (Vifacora) to address the issue.
Vifacora has been receiving numerous complaints from disgruntled residents who have reportedly also failed to get audience from Victoria Falls City Council officials, according to residents’ association leadership.
Councillor Netsai Shoko raised the issue during a full council meeting last Friday.
“Residents are complaining about high water bills. Some have written to the council, but have not gotten responses and they want an explanation,” said Cllr Shoko.
She was directing the question to the finance committee chairperson Cllr Prince Thuso Moyo.
Cllr Moyo said the city’s finance department had launched an investigation.
“We discussed the issue as a committee and the finance director said investigations on those houses that have reported high bills are underway. So far, several houses have been attended to and the team is out following up on concerns,” said Cllr Moyo.
Complaints about high water bills are a perennial issue in Victoria Falls where residents are concerned that monthly bills are high yet taps are dry most of the time.
In the past, especially during dry seasons, council officials have said residents waste water watering gardens.
Vifacora chairperson Mr Kelvin Moyo said his office was inundated by calls from disgruntled residents.
“For the past two months we have been receiving complaints, but we could not engage residents because there was no response from council. There are countless reports and most of them range between US$75 and US$100 of which that is a huge jump from previous rates,” said Mr Moyo.
He said Vifacora is organizing residents’ meetings and the issue will be top on the agenda.
Victoria Falls Council is owed over $500 million by ratepayers including residents.
To improve collection efficiency, the local authority is considering fast-tracking roll out of pre-paid water meters which it believes will also address concerns about estimated meter readings.
Cllr Nkanyiso Sibindi said a resolution to roll out pre-paid water meters was made two years ago and had not been implemented.
Town clerk Mr Ronnie Mr Dube said plans are underway to roll-out pre-paid water meters this year.
“We have not started the programme of prepaid meters solely because engineers are doing checks on our piping system. If we put pre-paid system now, some will not get water. We will start rolling it out with commercial clients and industry this year and then if it works, we will move to the low density suburbs.
This will help clear debts and it’s a better strategy and we urge people to start paying,” he said.
The city mayor Cllr Somvelo Dlamini said the city will have to adopt modern strategies of revenue collection as instructed by Government with a view to balance between service delivery and revenue collection. – The Chronicle
