The Mombasa Water and Sanitation Company and the county government have launched smart meters in Changamwe to revitalise water distribution.
The smart meters, according to Governor Abdulswamad Nassir, locks itself to stop water from flowing into a house once the grace period for payment of water bills lapses.
Likewise, it automatically unlocks once the bill is paid.
Speaking at the National Housing Corporation estate in Changamwe on Saturday, Nassir said, “We have just started. We will then expand it to the whole of Mombasa.”
Mowasco managing director Abdirahim Farah said the use of technology to measure and account for water received will reduce non-revenue water, which has seen the company lose millions of shillings.
He said it is in line with the governor’s vision of Mombasa being a smart city.
The pilot phase of the smart meter project was launched in Mombasa West mainland at the National Housing Corporation estate in Changamwe, where 400 meters were installed.
“We are targeting around 1,200 consumers. Through this, we expect to increase our revenue by 35 per cent in less than two months," he said.
“That will greatly improve our liquidity as a company and enable us to respond to other challenges.”
Mombasa faces a shortage of water, with a demand of 200,000 cubic meters daily against a supply of 40,000 cubic meters.
Out of the 40,000 cubic meters supply, the company loses about half of it through theft and leakages.
“This is one way we are going to tackle commercial losses to make sure all our meters are functional,” Farah said.
The MD said they are planning to revive around 600 dormant accounts.
From NHC, the next pilot phase will be at Miritini estate.
“Currently, we have around 500 active accounts but with this initiative, we hope to increase the active accounts by 600 or 700 accounts in this area,” he said.
He said almost half of the water supplied is lost to illegal connections and bypasses.
Mowasco head of ICT Edwin Mwale said apart from reducing non-revenue water, the smart meters will bring efficiency and accuracy in billing.
“We want to use the smart meters so we can measure the exact amount of water that we lose through theft and leakages,” he said.
Once this is known, Mwale said, there will be systems in place to ensure Mombasa residents get sufficient water supply.
Some of the old meters reverse and do not accurately read the amount of water used by households.
Mowasco’s monitoring and evaluation officer Emmanuel Cherop said the smart meters will enable zoning to know which area consumes what amount of water for commensurate distribution of supply.
“In most cases, we have been losing water because we do not know how much water we can account for. What we cannot account for, we cannot measure,” he said.
Cherop said the smart meters have been linked with a Geographical Information System, which then helps monitor the flow and usage of water.
This means with the smart meters, Mowasco can tell where a leakage has occurred or where there is theft of water.
Cherop said a 20 per cent reduction of non-revenue water will lead to almost 35 per cent increase in revenue collected.
Governor Nassir said eventually all the 28,000 meters in the county will be replaced.
“The plan is to ensure in the next one year the number increases to 40,000 people households using the smart meters,” he said.
The governor said since Mombasa has no source of water and depends on water from Kilifi, Kwale and Taita Taveta counties, attempts made to desalinate the Indian Ocean water have not been successful.
“We are trying once again to look for investors for the same,” he said.
The smart meters are also meant to keep away thieves who steal county water and sell it to residents at exorbitant prices.
