THE Bulawayo City Council (BCC) says it has no plans to privatise water and sanitation services within the city as it mulls the creation of an independent entity for efficient service delivery.
Coltart said the shares in the company would not be tradable, adding that the arrangement was not privatisation but a safeguard against dilution or hostile takeover.
“The proposed Bulawayo Water and Sanitation Public Utility will be 100% owned by the City of Bulawayo as the sole shareholder. This is a public water and sanitation utility which will be overseen by an independent board with public and local authority involvement,” he said.
“The proposed model will be a public utility — where the City of Bulawayo owns the utility’s assets and delegate's management, operation and maintenance of water and sanitation service delivery to a 100% City of Bulawayo-owned utility.”
Coltart said the goal of setting up a water utility was to enhance management while keeping water as a public resource, not to transfer ownership to a private company.
Council is expected to conduct ward-based and community stakeholder engagement meetings to share the information, discuss and garner public opinion on the utility model best suitable for Bulawayo in an attempt to clarify and correct deliberate distortions, misinformation and falsehoods.
Keep Reading
- Bulawayo struggles to clear housing backlog
- Bulawayo struggles to clear housing backlog
- Egodini developer changes tune
- Outcry over city’s new rates, tariffs
Bulawayo residents have criticised the privatisation of water in urban areas fearing increased tariffs, putting basic access to potable water, which is a human right, beyond the reach of low-income households.
However, Coltart argued that claims that the water utility is tied to prepaid water meters are false, adding that these were attempts designed to scare residents into resistance and reject the development.