Water utility to launch household ‘cash water’ system

Water and Sanitation Corporation Group (WASAC Group) plans to pilot the use of prepaid smart water meters for residential households whereby customers will start getting water equivalent to the amount of money they paid, officials announced on Thursday, June 26. This was announced by WASAC Group CEO Omar Munyaneza as officials from the utility appeared before the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to respond to issues in the report of the Auditor General for the financial year ended on June 30, 2024. ALSO READ: Eastern Province: Public concern grows over ongoing water leaks According to WASAC, the move is intended to address the issue of unbilled water. It is similar to the way cash power works for electric purchases. “You buy water, and the supply is cut when the amount you paid is used up,” Munyaneza said as he explained the way the prepaid smart water meters work. “We will start a trial within one month or two months. If the pilot set to last six months is successful, we will roll it out countrywide,” Munyaneza announced. The pilot project goal is to identify reliable, efficient, and scalable solutions for smart water meters to improve revenue generation and customer satisfaction, it was noted. Munyaneza said that contractors who want to partner with WASAC on the scheme are applying, pointing out that the utility body will pick contractors who performed well during the pilot phase so that they contribute to the scaled-up implementation. Meanwhile, he stated that a similar system is only applied to 200 public taps in some districts — Nyagatare, Gatsibo, Kayonza, Rwamagana (all in the Eastern Province), and Gasabo and Kicukiro (in the City of Kigali) — whereby their operators have to pay for water before supply. “We realised that this is effective and we want to expand countrywide,” he said. Rate of unbilled water still high Among other issues, the Auditor General’s report showed that WASAC continued to incur losses due to high level of non-revenue water — water produced and distributed but cannot be billed due to leakages, overflow, theft, inaccurate metering, among other factors. ALSO READ: WASAC Group mulls ways to reduce non-revenue water losses It indicated that non-revenue water was 39.5 per cent in 2024, down from 42.4 per cent in 2023 — reflecting a 2.9 percentage point reduction. Despite such a decrease, the report concluded that unbilled water was still high. ALSO READ: Water utility moves to penalize customers for late payment The report indicated that out of more than 76.6 million cubic meters volume of water produced, only over 30.2 million cubic meters — representing 60.5 per cent of the total — was billed to customers during the year ended 30 on June 30, 2024. This implies that the unbilled water was worth Rwf9.77 billion at minimum tariff of Rwf323 per cubic meter. Overall, Munyaneza said that, currently, about 40 per cent of WASAC water customers pay on time on a monthly basis, while the rate including those who settle outstanding amount for the previous month amounts to more than 80 per cent. The target, he said, is to reach at least 95 per cent payment rate.

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Water utility to launch household ‘cash water’ system