Phase 4 residents ordered to pay bills.

HWANGE Local Board (HLB) Acting Town Secretary Paulos Mabhureni has encouraged residents of Empumalanga Phase 4 to religiously pay their bills to guard against water supply cuts.

This comes after the residents of Phase 4 complained over the unavailability of water despite the reconnections in their area.

Mabhureni expressed his concern over the payment of Phase 4 residents saying council was not receiving much from them.

“We are not satisfied with how residents of Phase 4 are paying their water bills. We aren’t receiving much from them, a situation, which is likely to see us struggling to pay our ZINWA bill.
“We don’t want to go back to that situation [where the area had no water supply for a long time]. We believe water is everyone’s right and as such it should be available and accessible every time,” said Mabhureni.

Council is supplying Empumalanga Phase 4 with water as part of its pilot project aimed at preparing itself to take-over water administration from ZINWA.

“We are looking forward to taking over provision of water in our area of jurisdiction, with ZINWA supplying the resource, only as far as to its bulk meter, with us delivering to individual households. We are implementing this model in all new settlements, which are currently under development,” said Mabhureni.

He appealed to Empumalanga Phase 4 residents to refrain from destroying water infrastructure as well as engaging in illegal connections.

Mabhureni emphasised that Empumalanga Phase 4 residents are only obliged to pay for water charges, property tax land, property owners’ tax improvements and road levy since their area is not fully serviced.

“The revenue derived from rates is used by Council to fund road repairs, sewer and water reticulation management, public lighting, education, clinic, law and order, refuse collection and community development,” he said.

Empumalanga Phase 4 once went for about five months without water after being disconnected by the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA), as Council struggled to pay an insurmountable amount of money demanded as outstanding debt.

The water in this residential area was disconnected in February 2023 after Council failed to pay a bill of ZWL 28 million to ZINWA and was reconnected in July 2023.

Most of the residents were now opting to consume water form unsafe water bodies exposing themselves to diseases, in most cases the residents were practising open defecation because of the lack of water in the residential area.