Nakuru Water , Sanitation and Sewerage Company (NAWASSCO) has procured a software to aid in billing water through a mobile phone application following complaints from residents over inflated bills.
The Customer Management System software has been installed in the County.
The Company’s Nakuru East Zone Manager, Zachary Abuom, said the new system will help in detecting water theft, faulty meters and illegal connections.
He also acknowledged challenges with billing errors and meter tampering that have resulted in customers having credit balances running into millions of shillings.
The firm has also been grappling with accounts that reflect credit balances with no corresponding billing.
Abuom said the new system is tamper proof and would reduce customers’ inaccurate water bills.
“The new billing system will improve on accuracy of meter reading and billing as well as reduce Non-Revenue Water (NRW).
We are targeting 100 percent meter reading, increasing accuracy in readings and billing as well as better response to customer complaints.
The application will also enable the reader send in real time a photograph of a water meter,” said Abuom.
In the recent past three Water Service Providers in Nakuru County, NAWASSCO, Naivasha Water and Sanitation Services Company (NAVASSCO) and Nakuru Rural Water Services Company (NARUWASSCO) have been battling challenges such as non-revenue water, high residents’ bill, persistent water shortage as well as the huge wage bills.
In the new system, the readings are captured using mobile application and later transferred to classified master registers and finally uploaded to the billing system by the billing officer.
“The system is reliable, efficient and accurate to suit the requirements of the company. The proposed solution uses evolving GPS Mobile Technologies features to enable mobile meter reading App. to capture readings including the Global Positioning System (GPS) Coordinates of the customer,” observed Abuom.
He said once the system is fully implemented the burden on the Meter Reader will be lessened and the objective of this being to eliminate inaccuracy and fasten the process of billing.
The process he said had been designed to eliminate ‘Cooking’ of data by meter readers and water technicians.
By Anne Mwale
