Despite a request from one commercial property owner, the City of Kimberley is very unlikely to move to water meters, says Mayor Ron McRae.
Council received a visit from Stu Bain of the Western Lodge this week. Mr. Bain objects to paying a water charge for each room in his hotel and says a meter would more accurately reflect actual water usage. He says that he currently is using the equivalent of 15 homes but is paying for what 40 homes would use.
“Stu did a brief presentation,” said McRae. “He feels water meters should be available, particularly in the commercial sector. However, we are not going to go for water meters. We have enough on the go right now. It doesn’t make any sense given the climate we operate in right now. Water meters are very expensive to implement. In addition we still have to have a certain amount of revenue to maintain the infrastructure. Even if consumption went down with meters, we would have to charge a certain rate to maintain the infrastructure.”