Staff Writer22 October 2024 | 10:08

Ditch estimated water bills: How to log your meter readings with CoCT

The City of Cape Town is reminding residents that they can submit their monthly water meter readings if they wish to avoid estimated billing.

Ditch estimated water bills: How to log your meter readings with CoCT

Picture: Pixabay/balouriarajesh

Residents are able to submit their monthly water meter readings to the City of Cape Town, if they wish to do so.

Customers who choose to submit their own readings generally do so to avoid the possibility of estimated billing if their meter cannot be read by the City for any reason.

The Water and Sanitation Directorate monitors water usage of about 687 778 water meters at business and residential properties across the city.

For the 2023/2024 financial year, an average of 2 758 property owners submitted their water meter readings to the City monthly.

“Submitting your own reading is not compulsory, but it comes with great benefit to property owners. It can prevent estimated readings being applied to your monthly municipal bill and bring to your attention unusual changes in your water usage, with early detection of water leaks to avoid unexpectedly high bills.”
- Councillor Zahid Badroodien, Mayoral Committee Member for Water and Sanitation

What are estimated readings on my bill?

When the City can’t read your meter on a particular month, they look at how much water the property normally uses for that time of year and bill the account based on average use.

Once the actual reading is obtained, the account is rebilled based on actual readings.

This method is a common international practice to prevent delays in billing, and the undesirable accumulation of accounts in arrears.

When accounts accumulate and residents do not budget accordingly, it can result in unpaid debts.

 This can lead to actions being initiated by the City to recover the debt through restriction or disconnection of services to the property.

This method also allows residents to proactively manage their water use responsibly to avoid unnecessary water losses or wastage.

“Water is an essential resource, which we all need to use wisely at all times, regardless of the season and status of our dams.”
- Councillor Zahid Badroodien, Mayoral Committee Member for Water and Sanitation
“We encourage more property owners to become savvy by getting into the habit of tracking their water meters and submitting readings to the City every month – it’s only a click away.”
- Councillor Zahid Badroodien, Mayoral Committee Member for Water and Sanitation

How to ensure that the City attains an accurate reading for your water meter:

• Know where your water meter is located – it could be within your property boundary, or beyond the boundary, on the Council side.

• Your water meter should be accessible to City officials at all times.

• Make sure it is not obstructed (e.g. by sand, rubble or weeds) and is easy to access and read.

• If your water meter is behind locked gates, or if dogs prevent the meter readers from taking a reading, you can submit the reading yourself.

• Ask the City to relocate your meter to the outside of your property, via the City's Service Requests application, to prevent repeated estimations.

How to read your water meter:

• Open your water meter box. If the lid is closed, you can usually open it with something like a screwdriver.

• No matter what type of water meter it is, the black numbers represent thousands of litres, called kilolitres, and red numbers represent litres.

• Water charges are based on the number of kilolitres of water used on the property every month. If you are submitting your own readings to the City (e.g. if your meter is difficult for meter readers to access), you only need to supply the black numbers when submitting your reading.

• Water meters continually record the amount of water that passes into a property throughout the lifespan of the meter. The tally on the meter does not reset from month to month. Subtract the previous reading from your current reading to determine usage for the period between readings.

There is a monthly five-day billing period in which readings need to be submitted based on the respective customer’s billing cycle.

Customers who register via E-Services are automatically reminded monthly via SMS and via the E-Services notifications.

The Call Centre may provide customers with their respective meter reading date on request if the customer wishes to use alternative channels.

Customers may also visit their nearest Customer Interaction Centres to provide their reading in person.