Ndola water consumers reprieved

WATER consumers of Ndola’s Upper Ndeke Township who were wrongly billed from July 15 2004 to July 15 2017, when they had no water are all in smiles after Kafubu Water and Sewerage Company (KWSC) cancelled their bills worth K2.9 million.
Area Member of Parliament Dr Jonas Chanda had earlier on petitioned KWSC to have the bills in the area cancelled.
This is contained in a statement issued by Bwana Mkubwa Constituency Member of Parliament Dr Chanda who made a quick intervention on behalf of the residents.
“When I became MP in 2016, I worked with KWSC to restore water to Upper Ndeke, which involved boosting the water pressure by replacement of valves and water pipes.
“The cancellation of these unjustifiable high water bills must stop KWSC from disconnecting water to these households, and must encourage residents to pay water bills going forward,” said Dr Chanda.
He said Upper Ndeke was under a fixed billing system, adding that when the area had no water for 17 years due to low pressure and leaking old rusted water pipes, worsened by load shedding, residents were still being billed.
Dr Chanda said this was because of the fixed billing system, and hence ended up accumulating astronomical water bills worth millions of Kwacha per household.
He said he had also petitioned KWSC to have unjustifiable water bills cancelled for those households in Mushili Township under a fixed billing system who were similarly billed for periods when they had no water.
“To mitigate this problem, I have urged KWSC to replace fixed billing systems with metered billing systems monitored by residents themselves concerning their usage of water,” he said.