Chaklala cantonment testing water meters

RAWALPINDI: In order to eliminate water theft and measuring the precise usage of water, the Chaklala Cantonment Board has decided to install metres on the water supply system within the cantonment limits.

After installing the metres, the flat rate tariff for water usage will be abolished and all residential and commercial consumers will receive bills as per their consumption.

The cantonment administration, in line with directives of the Supreme Court, has decided to introduce metres and to link these metres with a computerized billing system for generating water bills.

In this regards, the cantonment board plans to deploy technical staff to take metre readings.

For this purpose, the cantonment board administration acquired water metres from different companies to test them for their quality and durability. One of the key elements on which the metres will be tested is their accuracy in reading when water is being supplied and it is cut.

A cantonment official said that during their testing they observed that some of the metres kept running owing to air pressure in the pipes even when the water supply was cut off.

However, he assured that the cantonment board administration will make sure that only those metres are installed which only take readings once water is being supplied in the pipelines. This, he said, would help develop the consumers’ trust.

Apart from keeping a track on resident’s water consumptions, the new system will also help eliminate consumers’ complaints such as excessive billing even when their consumption was less. 

Published in The Express Tribune, March 19^th, 2019.