BCC urged to slash bills
Mabel Khumalo
BULAWAYO-Matabeleland Institute of Human Rights (MIHR) has implored Bulawayo City Council (BCC) to reduce rate payers’ water bills by 30% because of the 72 hour water shedding scheme.
Most Bulawayo residents have been struggling to pay bills due to the recently hiked water bills despite enduring long dry spells of up to seven days without the precious liquid.
Speaking at a press briefing in commemoration of the 2022 World Water Week under the theme “Seeing the unseen: The value of water,” in Bulawayo yesterday, MIHR Coordinator Khumbulani Maphosa said, “Currently, the city is implementing a 72 hour official water shedding scheme which means that residents are spending about 40% month length without running tap water. However the residents’ bills are still estimated at the original 100%, which is unfair to the rate payers.
In that light we wish to urge the BCC to do away with estimated water bills and resort to actual billing and charge the residents for the water they would have consumed .”
Mr Maphosa said if council is not able to conduct physical billing for whatever reason, the local authority must institute at least a 20 to 30 per cent cut to the estimated water bills in line with the 40% monthly period that residents endure without running water.
Due to the constant and lengthy watershedding, residents have taken to filling up containers with water to use during the water shedding periods and on some occasions the council has provides water by way of bowzers.
Maphosa revealed that MIHR will circulate a petition which will be signed by Bulawayo residents and directed to BCC urging it to take action towards correcting the billing system in the face of the on-going 72 hour water rationing scheme.
Maphosa posited that the on-going water shedding scheme is subjecting Bulawayo residents to violence and human rights violations at alternative water points. According to a 2021 research carried out by MIHR, women and children were the most affected as 73% of the respondents from Bulawayo’s different wards claimrd to have experienced insults, 66% were pushed and shoved, 23% experienced physical fights, and 15% were subjected to threats.
“The survey put forward a number of recommendations which included the need for BCC to design mechanisms to protect residents from violence, and also to introduce gender inclusive and child sensitive water management structures,” said Maphosa.
World water week is an annual event organised by Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) which takes place from 23 August to 1 September which was set up in 1991 to address the global water issues and related concerns of international development.
