Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa Dec/January 2020 | Page 32

SPONSORED
MANAGING
Prepaid water meters
The transparent way to manage tenant
consumption
S
outh Africa has always been a water scarce country.
However, consistently poor rainfall has now made
terms like Day Zero our new normal. Lessons
learned from prepaid electricity meters have shown how
transparent utility metering can impact consumption – and
it doesn’t require property owners to jump through hoops
to have the meters installed.
The water crisis is by no means endemic to South Africa.
Global demand for fresh water will exceed supply by 40% by
2030. The facts show that we are racing against time to come
up with a solution by then. However, South Africa has a more
acute need to find a quick solution to the high consumption
rate, with Nelson Mandela Bay just one example of a city in
danger of running out of water this summer.
Seeing is believing
If there was one good thing to come from the recent water
crisis in Cape Town, was the lessons learned by authorities on
how to ensure consumption was radically dropped, with locals
managing to hit the 50 litres per person per day – a world first
for a large city.
“A reason Capetonians were able to reach the required
consumption was that the City published maps where
customers could see how much they, and their neighbours,
were using on a monthly basis. This spurred them on to reduce
their usage and by visualising the consumption data, the
City was able to avoid catastrophe,” Citiq Prepaid managing
director, Michael Franze explains.
Using prepaid meters puts the data in individual households
and front and centre in the minds of the household users.
Franze explains how prepaid water meters mimic their electric
cousins, and visually sensitise users to consumption.
“Water meters have a lot in common with prepaid electricity
meters. Both sit on the main supply line. They both have a
means to cut off the supply, should your credits run out. Both
have a means to top up supply by purchasing credits, and
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DECEMBER/JANUARY 2020 SA Real Estate Investor Magazine
both have a means to record and reflect how many credits the
consumer has at any time. As we saw with prepaid electricity,
when customers can see how much they are using, and have
to suffer the immediate inconvenience of buying more credits
when they run out, they quickly change their behaviour.”
You can’t fight the facts
In estates, prepaid meters allow landlords to subdivide the
water they are getting from the municipality, to each unit. This
then allows a per-household supply with accurate readings
and a transparent, online reporting system.
Installation is as simple as calling a plumber to install meters,
with no additional permission required from the municipality.
Having the usage data available also leads to additional
benefits for both landlord and tenant.
“We have seen that one of the results of adopting a
transparent system is the cultivation of trust between landlord
and tenant with a significant reduction in conflict over billing.
This benefit extends beyond the payments of utilities and aids
the long-term relationship, leading to longer leases and lower
risk for the landlord,” Franze explains.
Prepaid water meters are operated by long life batteries
which will need to be replaced from time to time and the
mechanical parts require safe installation. However, it is a
small price to pay for the benefits of complete control of water
measurement and the best means available to actively lower
consumption.
“We have seen water consumption drop by as much as 90
percent when prepaid meters are installed. As more and more
cities and towns face water restrictions, which often come with
heavy penalties for overconsumption, prepaid water meters
are the smart short-term solution that will also deliver long-
term benefits,” Franze concludes.
SOURCE Citiq Prepaid