24 April 2008
Windhoek — THE Windhoek Municipality has started a three-month project to read all water and electricity meters in the city after residents complained that estimates made every second month were inaccurate and their bills were too high.
"City officials will read meters between April and June after hours as well as on Saturdays and Sundays to ensure entrance to many premises inaccessible during working hours, but they will identify themselves appropriately with the municipality's identification card," the municipality said in a statement this week.
"It is the responsibility of each client to make the meters accessible and visible for reading purposes.
We appeal to residents to ensure that no vicious dogs are tied next to the meters and meters should be free from any obstruction that hinders proper meter readings."
Depending on the outcome of this pilot project, the Windhoek City will then determine a future course of action for meter reading People who read their own meters are urged to submit their readings between the 20th and 31st of each month.
The municipality has received numerous complaints about estimates of water and electricity consumption.
These estimates, based on a household's previous usage, are used to calculate municipal bills, which is perceived to be an unfair corporate practice.
Some meters are only read every second month. All estimates are reversed as soon as an actual reading is made.
Estimates of municipal water and electricity consumption are done in many local authorities internationally for practical reasons and are not a practice peculiar to Windhoek.
The City of Windhoek calculates an average of the actual consumption over three consecutive months to determine the bill of a customer whose meter cannot be read.
The many reasons necessitating estimates include uncommitted self-readers who do not submit their readings regularly to the City, unreadable meters, meter readers refused entry to properties, vicious dogs, meters that are removed due to non-payment, locked gates, untraceable meters, damaged meters and changed locks.
"Estimation of municipal water and electricity does not mean that the City is robbing the ratepayers," the municipality said.
All the estimated readings are reconciled with the next actual readings and if the estimate was too high, the customer's account is credited with the relevant amount.
There are about 70 000 municipal water and electricity meters in the city.
Of those, between 85 and 89 per cent are read every month and only between 11 and 15 per cent - or 10 500 meters - are estimated for one or more reason highlighted above.
For further clarity, the following officials can be contacted: Mr W Maasdorp at 290 2303 and Mrs S Andrew at 290 2031.
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