Soweto residents' refusal to pay water rates is costing the City of Johannesburg nearly R90-million a year. In the year ending June 30, the city collected only R9.1-million out of a possible R100-million fr om the 138723 prepaid meters installed in Soweto since 2004.The meters were put in as part of an R800-million water infrastructure upgrade project.A report given to the city's environment and infrastructure services committee stated that the project was not working.Johannesburg Water has previously admitted that most of the meters have been illegally bypassed and went as far as calling for political intervention."To resolve this problem a weekly meeting has been scheduled, at which analysis of data is done, including progress on the bylaw enforcement (cut-offs)," the report said.It went on: "The poor performance for the year is attributed to project stoppages due to community hostility and poor performance from the contractors."The committee heard that community threats against contractors had increased in Pimville, while parts of Orlando could not be accessed.The city has now taken to enforcing its bylaws to gain access to properties for meter readings and for the installation of more prepaid meters.The goal is to identify illegal connections and implement effective credit control...