Tanzanian government to scrap service charge in water bills

Dodoma. The government has directed all regional water authorities in the country to revoke meter service charges in their customers’ monthly billing.

Water and Irrigation deputy minister Isack Kamwelwe on Friday told Parliament that meter service charges were forcing water users to part with high monthly bills even if they did not use water, saying this was unfair and unprofessional.

He added that, a survey by his ministry also established that most regional water authorities were overcharging their customers in bills as the charges exceeded the amounts the latter were supposed to actually pay.

Minister Kamwelwe made the revelations as he was responding to a supplementary question by Mr Leonidas Gama (Songea Urban –CCM) who wanted to know what plan the government had in solving water woes in his constituency.

“Apart from acute shortage of safe and clean water in my constituency, there are public outcries over unpatriotic tendency by the regional water authority to impose high bills that don’t reflect the actual amount of water used. How does the parent ministry plan to end this problem?” He asked.

Minister Kamwelwe admitted saying, “We are aware of the situation and already, we have started to take measures to redress the anomaly.”

He detailed that, a special technical investigation by the ministry has detected that the whole system of recording and reading water uses in the relevant authorities’ meters has some weaknesses as it often doubles the actual uses of water by customers.

“We will work tirelessly to ensure the authorities are rectifying their meter recording and reading system in order to charge customers as per the actual uses, and not otherwise, “he assured.