Durban - THOUSANDS of water meters across Durban have not been read because the eThekwini Municipality’s issued contract to read meters expired four months ago.
This means that for the past four months, Durban residents have been paying estimated water bills.
The City yesterday confirmed the contract had expired and said the process of putting a new one in place was under way.
The failure to read meters has been an ongoing problem for the municipality. The Mercury reported in February that thousands of water meters had not been read for more than a year.
The City, at the time, gave a myriad reasons why the meters were not being read, including that they could not be found or were in inaccessible areas.
DA councillor Andre Beetge said the situation was unacceptable and often led to ratepayers receiving excessively high bills.
“The estimation means that the municipality could be extending a lot of credit or they are charging the users much more. This is not right. The meters should be read to ensure the community pays for what they use. The failure to read meters is part of the reason why we are getting estimated bills to the tune of R90 000,” Beetge said, adding that the reading of meters also led to water leaks being detected quicker.
IFP councillor Mdu Nkosi said: “There are many people who point out that as a result of this estimating, they are getting bills to the tune of R100 000, yet they do not have things that could justify the high bill. Some people end up not paying for the services of the municipality.”
Municipal spokesperson Gugu Sisilana said: “Our previous meter-reading contract has since expired and we have been in the process to have the new contract in place through our Supply Chain Management process.
“It is in its final stages of the procurement process now as all the efforts are to ensure that we have a valid contract in place in order for metre readings to be done and customers billed on actual meter readings on a monthly basis.” She indicated that in the interim, accounts were being estimated based on the previous three months’ consumption.
“As soon as the contract is in place, all estimates will be reversed and actual readings used for billing purposes on all the affected accounts during this period.
“Customers are continuously being billed using estimated charges as per their respective consumption history.
“Alternatively, residents can take a picture of their monthly water meters readings and upload it on the eThekwini Mobile App or via eServices,” she said.