30 Nov 2023

There are no plans to introduce prepaid water meters to households or individual plots.

Instead Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) is working towards rolling out smart meters effective April next year, the Minister of Lands and Water Affairs, Dr Kefentse Mzwinila has told Parliament.

He noted that piloting of prepaid meters by some local authorities proved not to be a success, owing to frequent failures, shortage of spares and lack of support from suppliers.

He said the rollout for the smart meters would be done in phases from 2024 to 2027, replacing all the 500 000 conventional meters countrywide.

He said to date, a total of 1 027 smart meters had been installed in Gaborone, including piloting Prepayment Solution programme on 100 of the existing smart meters.

To this effect, he said a transactional advisor had been engaged to advise WUC on the project. Furthermore, Dr Mzwinila noted that smart meters provided a reliable way of measuring water usage through their advanced technology and offered remote monitoring and operation, hence could be easily integrated into smart cities, homes and eco-friendly businesses.

He said this provision enabled WUC to read the meters remotely.

He also said, that unlike conventional meters, real-time meter reading updates on smart meters would close performance gaps by saving water and costs, as well as contributing towards enhanced customer satisfaction.

He said through the new system, not only would WUC be able to trace the volume of water consumed by each household, but customers would also be able to get their water bills on time and have control and access to their consumption patterns.

Additionally, he noted that the smart meters had alarms for alerting when there were water leaks, hence reducing water bills.
Selebi Phikwe East MP, Mr Kgoberego Nkawana had wanted to know if the ministry would consider connecting prepaid meters in Botshabelo, Selebi Phikwe. ENDS