Johannesburg Water to switch from open mode to prepaid smart meters

Johannesburg Water is rolling out new smart meters as the entity is switching from open mode to prepaid smart meters. 

The rollout will commence from Monday, 31 July in the following areas:

Cosmo City, Orlando East and West, Diepkloof, and Orange Farm.

This means that customers will be able to buy water from this day onwards. The benefit of prepaid smart meters is that customers will be able to pay for their consumption, but those without meters will be billed for availability charges or deemed consumption which in most cases is above their consumption and more expensive.

Furthermore, qualifying residents will be able to, and are encouraged to, register for the Expanded Social Package (ESP) at the City of Johannesburg’s Department of Social Development to access benefits. Currently, the process of pairing the open meters with Customer Interface Units (CIUs) is taking place.

Therefore, Johannesburg Water urges customers to grant their teams access to their properties for the process of meter pairing. Customers without meters will be deemed to have refused the meters hence bylaws will be enforced that will result in the disconnection of their water supply.  

Following the rollout in the abovementioned areas, the prepaid meters project will be extended to other regions.