Residents resist prepaid water meters

GWANDA Residents Association is refuting claims that the town's residents unanimously agreed to have prepaid water meters installed at their homes contrary to such reports.

The association is accusing Gwanda Town Council of having misplaced priorities and tainting the name of Local Government Public Works and National Housing minister Saviour Kasukuwere.

Recent reports say Gwanda Town Council was given the go ahead to roll out the pre-paid water system by the Minister Kasukuwere as the move would improve revenue inflows into the local authority which is owed about $8 million by residents.

Gwanda Residents Association's Information and Publicity Secretary, Bekezela Maduma Fuzwayo, said this was surprising considering residents refused to have the prepaid water meters installed.

"Without reciting our many social legal and civic reasons against the meters we are disappointed that in its statement on the motivation of the meters council is quoting Minister Kasukuwere as having ordered them to install the meters from a closed meeting resolution.

"This is not the first time council has brought the name of the minister into our water crisis," said Fuzwayo.

He said as far as they recall the last official position of government on prepaid water meters was that it would not force the meters on citizens and that local authorities must consult intensively before any decision is made.

Fuzwayo said the local authority did not hold intensive engagements with Gwanda residents except for politicised ward meetings that were called to denounce the residents association.

He said Gwanda Town Council had misplaced priorities as it was supposed to address the issue of how it could gain autonomy from the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA).

"As residents we are tired of being spoken for and wrongfully so. We do not understand why our council decided to go out and tell Minister Kasukuwere that Gwanda residents demanded prepaid meters.

"As far as we know, both residents and council have been joining hands in trying to fight off the dual system in our water supply network where council buys treated water from ZINWA before selling to us residents at an outrageous price."

Fuzwayo added: "We assumed Minister Kasukuwere was due to meet our council and thought the meeting was going to come out with a resolution to get ZINWA out of our water administration system. For whatever reason, council decided to forget our war."

He said it was suspicious that ZINWA was suddenly a good brother of the local authority yet in a number of meetings council always blamed ZINWA for the town's water problems.

"All the collective resolutions we took together with council to fight ZINWA out are suddenly of no relevance," Fuzwayo said.