🏛️ Governance

Digital Municipal Utility Billing Upgrade

Harare, working with Helcraw Water and Laison Technology, has installed 18,000+ smart prepaid water meters (as of March 2026) that let residents recharge via EcoCash, ONE Money or bank apps, part of a phased rollout toward 320,000 units. Valve theft, vandalism and a High Court challenge over the scheme's legal basis have accompanied the expansion.

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🤖 AI-generated summary of the sources below — how this works · 🔎 Last verified 2026-08-02

🏛️ Governance Water Digital government Sensors & IoT

📊 Impact

18,000+ smart prepaid meters installed by March 2026, toward a phased target of roughly 320,000 units.

Evidence📰 Media

Scale🏙️ City-wide

📖 Terms in this entry: Non-revenue water (NRW) · Open data · Urban data platform (UDP)

Sources

↗ City of Harare (authority)Official municipal site.

↗ 263Chat (press)Early-2026 rollout coverage.

↗ Pumps Africa (press)Confirms 18,000+ meters by March 2026 and a phased ~320,000-unit target with Helcraw Electrical.

↗ Newsday Zimbabwe (press)Reports theft/vandalism of meter valves.

↗ NewZimbabwe.com (press)June 2026 High Court challenge over the legal basis for prepaid metering.

This overview was generated with AI from the public sources listed above and checked against them before publication. It has not had a complete human fact-check — treat it as a starting point and follow the sources.

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Compare this project

🇨🇴 Prepaid Smart Water Metering (Agua Prepago) · Medellín Prepaid utility metering with the same access-versus-disconnection tension: EPM sells water in advance in Medellín, now Harare too. 🇬🇭 ECG Smart Prepaid Metering in Greater Accra · Accra Neighbouring prepaid-utility disputes: Accra's regulator and utility clash over drain rates; Harare's scheme faces a High Court challenge. 🇲🇽 Mexico City Water Network Sectorisation and Telemetry · Mexico City Related through Water.

Explore the wider context

🗺️ Your City's Problem Map Is Really a Map of Who Complains 💧 Water guide 🏙️ Harare city profile 🏛️ Governance projects

📎 Cite this project

1001 Smart Cities (2026). “Digital Municipal Utility Billing Upgrade” — Harare, Zimbabwe. The Smart City Atlas. https://1001smartcities.org/projects/harare-billing-system/ (last verified 2026-08-02). Data: CC BY 4.0.

The underlying data is free to reuse with attribution — see the open data page.

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