Julius Mandaliza Phiri
October 06, 2012
Eastern Water and Sewerage Company Limited has procured 1,000 water meters at the cost of K234, 704,230 Managing Director, Mr Wamuwi Changani has confirmed the procurement.
Mr Changani says water meters had already arrived in the country and had been distributed to districts.
He notes that the water meters procured would ensure that all customers that had applied for new connections, which had been pending for many months, are connected. The water meters would also ensure that districts that had unmetered and inactive accounts were catered for. In addition, water meters will enhance the billing efficiency for all the accounts.
Mr Changani says the Company would continue to maintain its policy of universal metering in all the distribution and production networks. ”The company is aimed at 100% metering ratio”, he said
The Managing Director further reveals that in addition to what had been procured, the Company would place another order for 1,000 water meters, replacements parts and components for repair of stuck and damaged water meters.
He stresses that the idea was to make sure that all customers were metered and warned customers who have the tendency of tampering with water meters that they would be prosecuted.
Mr Changani says the Company has set up a water meter repair system for quick responses to repair of meters deemed to be defective.
He discloses that the current water meters in Chipata were installed in the late nineties and are suspected of under reading consumption figures to the loss of the Company and for this reason they needed to be replaced. ”A meter needs to be replaced after 5 years”, he said.
Meanwhile Eastern Water and Sewerage Company Limited has introduced lockable valves on the meters to stop customers using the valve to open and close water and also to make it easy to deal with defaulters. Technical Manager, Mr Wilson Chifwima has said.
Mr Chifwima says the lockable valves were introduced in Chipata late last year.
Mr Chifwima says before introducing the lockable valves the Company was receiving a lot of complaints on leakages at the meter point and when disconnecting customers who defaulted, the Company used to remove the meter. After the installation of lockable valves complaints of leakages had reduced as customers were no longer using the valves to open and close water.
On defaulting customers, he said it was now easy to disconnect the customer without removing the meter from the customer’s premises.
He discloses so far the lockable valves had been installed in Chadiza, Chipata and Mambwe. He says other districts would soon have them installed.
On the customer survey done in Chipata and Chadiza on the lockable valves customers welcomed the lockable valve, however, they demanded for more information on its use.
This is very key for a Company like Eastern Water and Sewerage company. With metering, the company expects to reduce distribution and commercial water loses thereby increasing its revenues. In addition, it becomes much easier to plan for repairs and maintenance as affected zones can easily be monitored. Bravo Eastern Water!!!!!!!!!!!