By Peter Matengu
KATIMA Mulilo Mayor, her Worship Georgina Mwiya on the 6th of April inaugurated the pre-paid water system, which will pave the way for the abolishment of the conventional water billing system.
KATIMA Mulilo Mayor, her Worship Georgina Mwiya
The Katima Mulilo Town Council on Friday the 6th of April 2018 embarked upon the mission to supply its residents with prepaid water system.
The CEO of Katima Mulilo Town Council, Mr. Raphael Liswaniso gave a brief back ground that led to the prepaid water billing system. He said in 2013 the Council received enormous complaints of water over charges, non payments and heavy debts with their bulk supplier NamWater, which even led to water closure at some points. “Since Nam Water supplies council with prepaid water bill, we too decided to follow suit” emphasized the CEO.”
The CEO however lamented that it was difficult to get the prepaid meters due to finances but luckily the council got someone who was willing to do the job and get paid later. Mr.Liswaniso was proud to announce that he and his team negotiated for the N$ 2500 and three months installments payment method, from the initial N$3100 once off payment.
Officiating the occasion the town Mayor Mwiya noted at the occasion that “success comes through risks, it is therefore my distinct honour this morning to inaugurate the prepaid meter system”.
The Mayor thanked ABC Investment for entering into a Public Private Partnership (PPP) with the town council especially for agreeing to deliver the services first without payment. The service level agreement entered into force between Katima Mulilo Town Council and ABC investment include the following; free installation of prepaid meters to the entire town, a 3 years mechanical service warrant, an 8 years guarantee life span, free technical training, free computers and software and 3 months installments.
The Mayor was delighted to announce that the prepaid meter system if implemented wisely, will increase the council’s revenue base and at the same time increase service delivery towards the residents of Katima Mulilo.
The contract they signed with ABC investments will come into three phases, stage one will be the installation of
prepaid meters to the whole town of Katima Mulilo, stage two will be the bringing of vending machines to a variety of shops around town and stage three will be online payments through cellphone banking.
The mayor ended her speech by calling all Katima Mulilo residents, business personalities and all the stakeholders to embrace and support the new system as it will bring development to the town.
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