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EXPLAINED: THIWASCO Responds to Concerns over High Water Bills.

THIWASCO MD Moses Kinya shows off a jug of water from their company which he boasts of being among the best in the country.
Over the course of the last few months, some residents of Thika Town have had concerns about high water bills forcing them to question the legitimacy of these charges.

Responding some of these concerns, THIWASCO Managing Director (MD) Moses Kinya acknowledged several reasons to these consumer complaints seriously and assured that they were working to rectify any anomaly that might have been from their side on a case-by-case basis.

However, Kinya attributed that majority of these complaints emanated from various faults by the clients thus, the updated meter readings just happened to unearth an accrued backlog of unpaid water bills.

“We have upgraded our systems and have now incorporated technology into our meter readings and billing. For the last 3 months now, our field officers have been using a Mobile Field Assistant (MFA) App to record and transmit data instantly into our systems from the location of the customer’s meter,” explained the MD.

He added that this application has assisted field officers to enhance accuracy in data capture and subsequently upload to the core billing system.  

“It is GPS enabled therefore it gives us the exact time and accurate location from where the officer did their recording. We also include an image of the meter readings as matter of evidence thus helping us handle any complaint that might occur,” he added.

In the course of this new development, THIWASCO has been able to update and bill a total of 31,272 consumers and have been able to identify several anomalies that have been dogging the billing system over the years.

Among some of these anomalies include, faulty meters, meters that have not been read for quite some time due to lack of accessibility as well as illegal connections of water by some residents.

“In most of these cases where we could not access the meters, we have been billing such clients through estimates. But whenever we access these meters, we update our readings accordingly which at times may lead to very high bill in case we have been underestimating our reading,” said Kinya.

The company is also replacing old water meters with new ones that are more efficient and accurate in recording amount of water consumed. The old meters, he said, were worn out and prone to inaccurate readings.

Kinya also blamed the high bills on leaking pipes and households that leave running taps without care.

“Some love to waste water. They shower with the water running, they leave taps without turning them off, they also don’t care if the pipes are leaking,” said Kinya.

He asked all those who had issues with their billing to contact their customer care desk and they will have their cases sorted out. 

Otherwise, Kinya assured the residents of continued service delivery, adding that their rates were among the cheapest in the country.

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