POLOKWANE – The municipality has confirmed that residents can take their own water meter readings and submit them to the municipality monthly.
Municipal spokesperson, Tidimalo Chuene, said the municipality, however, did not encourage this as the municipality had contracted a private company to take water meter readings according to a formulated cycle.
This comes after several complaints from residents about incorrect water meter readings.
According to residents, the water meter readings on their municipal accounts and the actual readings on their water meters did not tally, and the result of this was high municipal accounts.
“I am unemployed and am at home 24 hours a day. I can confirm that in the past six months, the municipality has not taken water meter readings in Westenburg. I also know this because whenever the water meter reader comes, I take the readings with him to ensure he writes the correct readings. No one came recently to take any readings,” a Westenburg resident said.
A resident from Flora Park also confirmed that he preferred taking his own water meter readings, especially after he received high municipal accounts for six consecutive months.
“My municipal account was never more than R3 500 a month, and since October last year, I paid between R8 000 and R10 000. I did my own investigation and found that there was a big difference in the water meter readings on my account and the actual readings. I reported the matter and the municipality rectified the problem. Since then I have been taking my own water meter readings and the municipality sends someone every now and again to verify that my readings are correct,” the resident said.
Chuene said residents could make arrangements at the municipal customer care counters or contact the municipality at (015) 290 2001 and ask to be transferred to the customer care call centre at extension 2916/17/18 or 19.
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