The Bulawayo City Council (BCC) has attributed some high water bills received by residents to leakages and over usage.
Of late, residents have been thronging the local authority’s Revenue Hall querying high water bills.
Speaking during a media briefing Thursday, an official from the city’s Engineering Services Department, Faith Nkonde said leaks and exceeding daily allocations was contributing to high water bills.
“High bills particularly relating to water consumption may be caused by leakages, over usage of water and using water beyond the daily allocation,” said Nkonde.
“The daily allocation for domestic purposes is 450 litres for high density suburbs and 650 litres for low density suburbs. Bills may also appear to be high when comparing the US$ figures to the ZWL figures. For example, a property that pays ZWL$9,000.00 is equivalent to the US $23.00 at the prevailing interbank rate.”
The city’s supply dams are now 54 percent full while average daily consumption, which has been increasing since 2015 stood at 146.9ML/day in January this year.
“The variations in consumption are attributable to the different shedding schedules during the periods specified,” explained Nkonde.
BCC indexed rates and tariffs against the US Dollar based on the ruling interbank rate at the time of billing with effect from June 1 2022.
“The indexing of tariffs against the ruling interbank rate aligns perfectly with the Monetary Policy Statement and the provisions of SI 118A as announced by the Ministry of Finance in the midterm review,” said Nkonde
“Residents, industry, commerce and government owe Council ZWL$7.9 billion as at the end of May 2022. Council bills residents in the local currency and also accepts payments in all currencies. Residents and stakeholders are encouraged to settle their bills on time.”
