Bulawayo Councillors have blocked a proposal by the council management to resume water disconnections, a CITE article reports.
The disconnections, as reported, were one of the city’s debt recovery strategies.
The local authority is owed RTGS$184m in unpaid rates by residents.
The city’s finance director, Kimpton Ndimande had proposed the reintroduction of water disconnections in the latest finance and development meeting.
City fathers, however, rejected the proposal. A report notes that they urged the council management to come up with other debt recovery strategies. Part of the report reads:
Councillor Felix Mhaka suggested that Council should consider other options of collecting money than disconnecting water.
It was not the right time to disconnect supplies considering the harsh economic situation. Council should understand the position of residents as people have a right to access water. Residents should be encouraged to pay their bills even in small amounts to reduce their debts.
Among other issues, councilors noted that whilst some residents are reluctant to pay their rates, some lack the capacity to pay.
Resultantly, they proposed serving residents with final warnings putting the credit policy on hold and resorting to other revenue mobilisation strategies.
The Chamber Secretary Sikhangele Zhou advised on the need to balance the needs of the organisation against those of the residents. She said that, in some instances, service delivery does not commensurate with revenue collected.