The Zimbabwe Senate has recommended that “Bulawayo City Council must introduce smart water metering for accurate billing as well as curbing non-revenue water losses” by 30 June 2025.
This recommendation is contained in the Senate Hansard of 10 June 2025 where the Report Of The Joint Portfolio Committee On Local Government, Public Works And National Housing And The Thematic Committee On Sustainable Development Goals on the water situation in the City of Bulawayo has been tabled.
The Senate recommendations are concerning in numerous ways that include:
- There seems to be a dichotomy in the understanding of the concept of smart water metering in Zimbabwe. Most government and local authority officials call prepaid water meters ‘smart water meters’. This ambiguous understanding of smart water meters (if it is not political) should be first cleared before such discussions and recommendations are made and promoted.
- It is also concerning that Zimbabwe is currently having a serious technological and connectivity gap. If smart water metering is being understood in its truest sense, Parliament of Zimbabwe needs to first consider how the connectivity gap will be bridged so that smart water metering works efficiently.
- Senate needs to give a balanced recommendation that not only focuses on the Bulawayo City Council administrative operation but that also considers the plight of the residents who are acutely impoverished by the macro-economic upheavals in the country. This blanket and un-culverted Senate recommendation is therefore dangerously exposing low income, impoverished and marginalized urbanites to extortionate water pricing by the local authority.
- The Senate’s recommendation is concerning because in the entire report, the Senate said nothing about the problems of billing in Bulawayo. This creates the assumption that during the Senate fact finding mission to Bulawayo, the issue of inaccurate billing was not an observed issue. Therefore, it becomes concerning where the recommendation emanates from and what problem it seeks to address as such a problem was not observed during the visit.
- Senate needs to be cautious of not smuggling into Zimbabwe and promoting water privatization (a global proven failed water supply model) in the guise of smart water metering.
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