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Chronicle Reporter
BULAWAYO City Council yesterday launched a pilot phase of its contentious prepaid meter water project in Cowdray Park’s Hlalani Kuhle area .Addressing officials from Polokwane Municipality, the council’s financial manager, Isaac Matare said the Hlalani Kuhle initiative is a pilot project that may see the project being extended to the whole city.

“The first phase of the programme is the recording of information and it started today (yesterday). We hope by the end of June this year the system will be fully operational,” he said.

“We will initially run this programme for residents at Hlalani Kuhle houses who are using communal water points. We will then monitor and assess the project before rolling it out to individual households,” said Matare.

He said residents will be given tokens which they will use for paying and accessing water. He added that the major advantage of the  system is that it will allow council to monitor water usage.

However, residents’ associations yesterday castigated council for the initiative that they said infringed on basic human rights particularly access to water.

Bulawayo United Residents’ Association chairman Winos Dube said council should not force prepaid water meters on residents.

“Water is life so we do not agree with council on that issue. This system will mean that those without money do not get water, which may cause a health hazard,” he said.

Bulawayo Progressive Residents’ Association advocacy and programmes officer Emmanuel Ndlovu said council had misplaced priorities and suggested that the move will alienate and isolate the residents.

“We met the council with Cowdray Park residents recently and made it clear that we do not want prepaid meters. They promised to consult before taking any further action,” said Ndlovu.

The council said the prepaid water meters will force residents to pay their bills, improve revenue collection and do away with the erroneous billing system that has seen many residents complaining about huge monthly bills that are often estimated.