The influence of technical and behaviour factors on prepaid water meter system on revenue collection, a case of Lusaka Water and Sewerage Company, Kafue district.

The Prepaid water meter technology is growing at a faster rate especially utilities in Africa who desire to handle challenges of debt recovery and non-payment for the services offered by the utility and ultimately improve the collection of revenue. LusakaWater and Sewerage Company (LWSC) is a state-owned company which oversees provision of water and sewer services to the entire province of Lusaka. The utility was commercialised, to be able to generate revenues to support its operations through user fees as the main source of revenue. However, under the post-paid billing system (fixed and metered), non-payments and debt had increased therefore, the company embarked on Pre-paid Water Meters (PWMs) to improve the revenue collection. The system was implemented in selected residential areas around Lusaka and two districts, namely Chongwe and Kafue, while the rest of the city remained on the Post-payment system. The focal point of this study was Kafue since it had the highest number of PWM consumers. In 2013, the PWMs were installed covering 95% of the total connection of the branch. Some properties which were on fixed charge were captured and 40% of every credit purchase was dedicated to servicing the debt. An improvement in revenue collection was noticed, however collections started dropping since 2015. Some of the challenges revealed were faulty valves, software errors, resulting into meter not shutting once units are depleted, or shutting down completely even with units in the meter, several stuck meters, apparent sales reduction on some properties, intermittent water supply, and customers engaged in meter tampering and vandalism. These factors have adversely affected the operations of the utility. Both technical and behaviour factors help explain the influence of the reduction of revenues collections of the utility. Based on the challenges afore mentioned, the main objective of this research was to explain the extent to which technical and behaviour factors related to PWM system have influenced the reduction of revenue collection of LWSC in Kafue district. There are many other factors which influence revenue collections, like: tariff, water production capacity. However, the study focused on technical factors which include; valve failures and low pressure in the distribution network while behaviour factors include consumption efficiency and meter tampering. This study is relevant as it informs the decision makers to develop or put in place strategic interventions with a focus on how these factors can be managed to achieve the goal of 100% guarantee of revenue collection. Both equity and planned behaviour theories were used to fully understand how and why the technical and behaviour factors influence revenue. The study adopted a case study strategy. Both qualitative and quantitative data was collected through primary data using two data instruments interviews and questionnaires. The interviews were semi structured and were administered to representatives from within LWSC who are the experts. While semi closed questionnaires were issued to the water users on PWMs for triangulation. Secondary data was also used for reliability and validity of the research. Purposive sampling and stratified random sampling approach were used in this research. The sample size for questionnaires was not a representative sample size because of time limitations however, the interviews supported the findings. For the interviews, data collected was transcribed and analysed using Atlas. Ti program while for the questionnaires, data was analysed using frequencies of (SPSS) and applied Pearson correlation test and a multiple regression. According to the main findings; 70% of the valve meters have failed, some customers stopped buying units and become relaxed, some major customers have moved to alternative water source, huge negative balances are abandoned in preference to buying cheap water from neighbours. Reasons found for the failures include; frequent burst pipes, leakages and intermittent water supply. From the findings, these challenges are centred on the dilapidated The influence of Technical and behaviour factors on prepaid water meter system on Revenue Collection, a case of Lusaka Water and Sewerage company, Kafue district iv water supply infrastructure of the district. Furthermore, inadequacy of technical know-how by prepaid department in the branch, no mechanism to quickly check on the computer to identify the meters dispensing water, lack of materials and poor response to customer complaint are among the reasons of high failure rates of meters . Low water pressure has reduced revenue through valve getting stuck and customers stay for longer hours without consuming especially when burst pipes are being worked on. Lastly, the hours of supply schedule had reduced in some areas. Under behaviour factor, spending and expenditure reduced, however illegalities are high both from internal staff and customers. Illegalities are occurring because of lack of inspection from the utility. In conclusion, both technical and behaviour factors have strongly influenced the revenue collection. However, technical factors have influence more than behaviour factors. This study recommends LWSC to budget and work on the district water network and intensify physical inspections.