Mozambique: Maputo water company to cut illegal consumption, non-paying customers

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Mozambique: Maputo water company to cut illegal consumption, non-paying customers

10:26 CAT | 28 Nov 2019

The capital has about 1.1 million inhabitants and Adem has 264,000 customers. 30% of consumers have been cut off or use water illegally in the city. [File photo: Noticias]

The chairman of the Maputo water company (Adem) said on Thursday that 30% of consumers have been cut off or use water illegally in the city, when he announced a programme that aims to reverse the situation.

“This is a problem that challenges our efficiency and way of acting,” Elias Machava, chairman of Adem’s board of directors said, cited in a company statement.

“We need to ensure the sustainability of the company,” he added.

The capital has about 1.1 million inhabitants and Adem has 264,000 customers, but in addition to a third being cut off or in an illegal situation, there is still a large portion (not quantified) of which consumption is billed but the company cannot collect the amount.

The company therefore launched a programme on Monday that aims to reduce the current rate of losses in different sectors, from 50% to 19%, by 2023.

The programme aims to focus on aspects related to the suspension of customers, consumption of uninvoiced water, energy efficiency, human capital and the use of reliable meters, among others.

The PAIRP aims to control the accumulated debt of customers, who currently amounts to around 1.7 billion meticais (€24 million), representing 80% of monthly turnover, with a tendency to grow, in the order of 15% to 20%.

Access to water supply is a scarce service in Mozambique.

According to data from the World Bank, one of the international entities that supports the sector in the country, only one in ten families has access to basic sanitation and only one in three receives drinking water.

Source: Lusa