Residents in Filabusi, Insiza South, are calling for the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) to urgently fix or remove its malfunctioning prepaid water system, which they say has left them struggling for months to access water.
One of the local councillors in Filabusi, Lesley Dube, described the system as “completely dysfunctional,” noting that residents have been forced to queue at ZINWA offices and depend on employees to manually reconnect their water supply each time they make a purchase.
“We have to go and queue at their offices, and when we buy water we have to get an employee there who will go and open it for you, it gives us a hard time,” said Dube in an interview with CITE.
“Employees frequently claim there isn’t a network for the system to function. We have been crying over the same issue for more than a year.”
Dube said the prepaid system fails to automatically restore supply after payments and despite repeated promises from ZINWA, the problem has persisted.
He urged the authority to consider reverting to the traditional postpaid meter system, which he said was more reliable.
“It would be better to remove these prepaid meters and put back the old ones because they were working nicely. We are not against technology, but this is not working. Maybe in the future, if ZINWA upgrades the system, we will welcome it,” said the Ward 15 councillor.
The councillor also criticised ZINWA’s limited working hours, which he said worsened the crisis for residents who need water urgently during weekends or community events.
“The other challenge is that ZINWA offices are not open on weekends. At times there are funerals or church gatherings where people require more water,” he said.
Residents have also raised fears of potential corruption, as they are forced to rely on specific ZINWA employees to manually restore supply.
“The way this is done will end up bringing corruption,” warned Dube. “Those who go around opening water will end up wanting to be given money for a drink.”
The councillor said several attempts to engage ZINWA have been made, but the situation remains unchanged.
“People cry to us for help, and as councilors, we are also not getting any assistance,” he added.
Contacted for comment, ZINWA Corporate Communications and Marketing Manager, Majorie Munyonga, acknowledged the concerns raised by Filabusi residents, attributing the challenges to network problems and a recent system upgrade.
“The Zimbabwe National Water Authority acknowledges concerns by Filabusi residents regarding the functionality of prepaid water meters in the area,” said Munyonga.
“The challenges are largely due to network problems in Filabusi and a system upgrade that affected prepaid meters in Filabusi, Hwange, Murehwa, Mutoko, Nyanga, Chivhu, and Mvurwi, resulting in residents failing to top up water units. The upgrade has since been successfully completed.”
Munyonga added that ZINWA was exploring interim solutions to ease the problem.
“To address the network challenges in Filabusi, ZINWA is deploying more Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) machines that operators can use to open meters when clients fail to do so automatically,” she said.
Munyonga defended the prepaid system as a modern and efficient technology for water management.
“Prepaid water meters remain one of the most efficient systems in water resource management, allowing users to pay in advance and avoid debt burdens linked to postpaid systems,” she said.
However, residents are frustrated and said they will continue urging ZINWA to deliver practical solutions to restore consistent water access.