Thiwasco MD Moses Kinya shows off a jug at his office in Thika. He has defended his company against higher water billings complaints by residents. [Photo|WhatsApp]Thika Water and Sewerage Company (Thiwasco) has come out to defend itself following several complaints by Thika residents over high water bills.Thiwasco Managing Director Moses Kinya has acknowledged that indeed there is a problem which the company is 'doing everything' to address.Kinya, however, attributed a majority of the issues being complained about to residents themselves."For instance, we recently introduced a new meter reading technology which unearthed an accrued backlog of unpaid water bills going back for months or years," Kinya said on Thursday during a press briefing at his office.He added: "To avoid this, for the last 3 months now, our field officers have been using a Mobile Field Assistant (MFA) App to record and transmit data instantly into our systems from the location of the customer’s metre."Kinya noted that the App that is GPS enabled, has assisted field officers to enhance accuracy in data capture and in the subsequent billing.He revealed that since the introduction of the new technology, Thiwasco has been able to update and bill 22,194 meters out of the total 31,272 and have been able to identify several anomalies that have dogged the company's billing system over the years.The anomalies, he said, include faulty meters, meters that have not been read for a long time due to lack of accessibility, illegal water connections by some residents and unscrupulous clients who colluded with field officers to underpay the company.Kinya said that the company is also in the process of replacing old water meters with new ones that are more efficient and accurate in recording amount of water used.

Share news tips with us here at Hivisasa