THE City of Harare has revealed that it has plans to manufacture more than 300 000 smart water meters to modernise water distribution, urban planning and adopt digital systems amid rapid infrastructural growth. It said it aimed to develop a roadmap that aligned with Vision 2030. For the past years, Harare City Council has been struggling to provide adequate clean water to millions of residents in the capital.
However, the public-private partnership involving government, city council and two private companies, Laison Technology and Helcraw Electrical, is expected to change the situation. So far, a pilot project has seen 20 000 households benefiting from a smart metering initiative which is set to be rolled out across the city. This was revealed during the City of Harare 2026-30 strategic planning stakeholder consultation meeting on Monday, where mayor Jacob Mafume said the meters were aimed at improving water billing transparency and efficiency while addressing long-standing issues with the current billing system.
“We have done a project for prepaid water meters. Twenty thousand are in a row. If not here, we are going to manufacture over 300 000 water meters, prepaid smart meters, so that we will be able to build,” he said.
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“The ERP [Enterprise Resource Planning] is there. In terms of that, we have resigned BIQ. Our billing is difficult to understand.
“And we do hope that we’ll be able to get rid of the challenges in our billing and come up with a coherent bill and be able to collect better. A collection system that is better. We’re also hoping to get a contribution on housing.” Acting town clerk Phakamile Mabhena said there was an urgent need to interrogate the performance of the existing plan.
“We want to know first how we fared, where we are currently and where we want to go, so that we plan how to get there and get where. What does 2038 mean to us?
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