Rand West City Local Municipality has decided to replace all current residential water meters with prepaid water meters.
The prepaid meters will be installed free of charge; however, for the project to be started, community members need to apply for the prepaid meters.
Richard Magryanya, manager of the Department of Water and Sanitation says the plan was devised by the new municipality to empower residents.
“Community members will now be able to budget according to their water consumption. Whenever they’ve used up the water they’ve already paid for, they can purchase new tokens and reload units themselves. It also means that people will check their water meters more frequently and regulate their usage accordingly,” Magryanya said.
Tshidiso Tlharipe, spokesperson for the Rand West Local Municipality says the project aims to reduce water losses in the area. “We lose water to the value of R27 million each month. We want to reduce these losses by enabling the community to use prepaid water,” Tlharipe said.
The municipality has started installing these meters on properties in Westonaria already and has 850 applications that are being attended to. It takes 2 to 4 hours to install a prepaid water meter.
Westonaria prepaid water slips are available at all petrol stations.
Once the Randfontein project has received enough applications, prepaid water slips will be made available at petrol stations as well. The municipality invites community members to apply for the prepaid water meters at the offices of the Department of Water and Sanitation.
Applications for the prepaid water meters are only available for residential addresses. Businesses and complexes will be targeted with a different type of prepaid meter at a later stage as their water systems are much more complex.
Do you perhaps have more information pertaining to this story? Email us at randfonteinherald@caxton.co.za (remember to include your contact details) or phone us on 011 693 3671.
For free daily local news on the West Rand, also visit our sister newspaper websites Roodepoort Record, Krugersdorp News and Get It Joburg West Magazine
Remember to visit our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages to let your voice be heard!
