Durban - The top 200 water consumers in Msunduzi Municipality will soon have above-the-ground meters installed to enable easy meter reading by municipal staff.
The municipality said these consumers, which include industries and big corporates, constituted 33% of the City’s revenue, and therefore it wanted to ensure that they were properly serviced.
The move was contained in the municipality’s five-year water masterplan. The plan is aimed at reducing water losses by dealing with leaks and illegal connections and ensuring that customers pay for the water use.
“The five-year water masterplan will assist with reducing water losses while simultaneously improving the accuracy of the water sales,” read a report. The plan comes as the municipality has faced criticism over the accuracy of its bills, with some consumers insisting that the municipality simply uses estimates, as opposed to conducting visits to their properties.
The installing of water meters outside properties is expected to make it easier for municipal staff to read the meters and forms part of the plan to tackle infrastructure challenges. The municipality’s water losses have been raised as a point of concern by the auditor-general in the past.
The plan also makes a number of recommendations, which include:
◆ Rezoning areas that experience frequent pipe bursts.
◆ Conducting a survey on pipelines to determine leaks.
◆ Conducting a consumer awareness and education campaign on the need to stop water losses where possible, including paying accounts.
At the meeting of the Executive Committee, members noted the low revenue collected and called for measures to be rolled out to ensure that customers pay for services such as water and electricity.
In a recent incident municipal staff on water and electricity meter reading duty were chased away in some wards, prompting the municipality to seek the assistance from the police when conducting readings.