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Speaker 1: The City of Cape Town is modernizing how residents use

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Speaker 1: and manage water. That's what they say. They are rolling

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Speaker 1: out something called an Advanced Metering Infrastructure program beginning just

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Speaker 1: after the first half of April, and in the first phase,

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Speaker 1: around eighty three thousand old mechanical meters will be replaced

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Speaker 1: with smart technology across more than one hundred and seventy areas.

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Speaker 1: That's all forming part of a broader one point one

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Speaker 1: billion rand investment aimed at improving water management, billing accuracy,

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Speaker 1: and early leak detection. So eighty three thousand meters replaced,

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Speaker 1: but over the next decade, more than six hundred eighty

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Speaker 1: thousand meters replaced, and at the end of that decade,

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Speaker 1: a fully digital system is expected to be in place.

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Speaker 1: The maker member for Water and Sanitation Councilors I hid

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Speaker 1: Badradin joins us n as. I hid as always thank

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Speaker 1: you for your time.

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Speaker 2: Good afternoon, good afternoon, Good to be with you again.

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Speaker 1: How's this going to work?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So, essentially, this is our initiative to digitize existing

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Speaker 2: meters across the city, and so the meters that are

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Speaker 2: currently in place within homes will then be replaced by

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Speaker 2: these digital meters. Which essentially will have some cards in

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Speaker 2: them which will connect to communication towers and so on,

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Speaker 2: and all of that information will then be uploaded onto

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Speaker 2: digital systems which will go all the way into the

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Speaker 2: palm of the residents, and so much so that just

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Speaker 2: by accessing an app or the e services, you'd be

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Speaker 2: able to track your water usage more frequently than what

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Speaker 2: is currently being reported, which is essentially one read per month.

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Speaker 2: So this digitization will help to ensure that we have

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Speaker 2: more regular readings and ultimately improve accuracy in terms of

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Speaker 2: the building that the city sends to residents.

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Speaker 1: So what will I have? I don't know where the

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Speaker 1: first phase is going to be rolled out, but let's

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Speaker 1: say that I or a listener is in an area

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Speaker 1: where the first phase will be rolled out. What happens,

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Speaker 1: I've got one of the old mechanical meters that are

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Speaker 1: read once a month on the pavement outside of my home.

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Speaker 1: Once the replacement has happened, what will I have?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so residents, these replacements won't happen by surprise. Residents

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Speaker 2: will receive notification at least thirty days before the replacement

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Speaker 2: is to take place via the bull and so on

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Speaker 2: and again within forty eight hours, they'll receive reminders that

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Speaker 2: these replacements will happen. Essentially, we've already started a process

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Speaker 2: where older meters are being relocated to the fronts of properties,

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Speaker 2: so it shouldn't be inside an individual's property any longer.

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Speaker 2: The old meters will then be replaced with this new

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Speaker 2: digital meter, which will have that's SIM card, which will

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Speaker 2: enable the connection to the digital backrooms, and then essentially

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Speaker 2: all of that information becomes digitally available through an app

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Speaker 2: or through the city's existing e services platforms.

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Speaker 1: My meter is outside on the pavement. You're talking about

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Speaker 1: people who have their meters inside and on their properties

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Speaker 1: moved to outside of their properties. What's the breakdown between,

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Speaker 1: you know, the percentage of people who are in my

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Speaker 1: situation versus those who will have the met moved from

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Speaker 1: inside to outside their property.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so that process of moving inside to outside is

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Speaker 2: something that's already well underway across the city in terms

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Speaker 2: of meters that are being replaced. I unfortunately don't have

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Speaker 2: that percentage worth me. But the area that we've largely

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Speaker 2: targeted as part of the first phase I would describe

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Speaker 2: as the Halderberg area, where we already know that we

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Speaker 2: have access to about eighty percent of the meters because

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Speaker 2: they've been relocated into the road verges or the pavements

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Speaker 2: and so on, and so it's not an issue in

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Speaker 2: terms of the first phase of the replacements. At the

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Speaker 2: same time, obviously the work to relocate meters that need

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Speaker 2: to be replaced because of meters that have been stolen

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Speaker 2: or meters that have become faulty will continue to be

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Speaker 2: moved from the inside to the outside. It is a

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Speaker 2: need to do so, but certainly for phase one, it's

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Speaker 2: not an issue that we anticipate.

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Speaker 1: Okay, because your media rely said that residents have to

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Speaker 1: be there to allow people onto their properties. But in

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Speaker 1: the first phase that's not going to be necessary because

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Speaker 1: the meters are already outside the property. And I got

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Speaker 1: whatsapped from a listener earlier this week as I had

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Speaker 1: saying why is the city charging us for this, and

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Speaker 1: reading the statement that was put out a couple of

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Speaker 1: days ago, there's going to be no payment by residents

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Speaker 1: for the replacement of meters.

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Speaker 2: No, certainly, no resident will be expected to pay for

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Speaker 2: the city placement. In the same way that when a

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Speaker 2: meter is stolen, we replace without any issue. Meters are

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Speaker 2: the assets of the city, and so it is our

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Speaker 2: responsibility to maintain and replace. And so this now begins

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Speaker 2: the process of digitizing the meta infrastructure which we have

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Speaker 2: in place.

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Speaker 1: At the moment, you said more accurate billing. Do you

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Speaker 1: expect these digital meters to measure more accurately the amount

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Speaker 1: of water that a household users? I thought the mechanical

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Speaker 1: meters were supposed to be quite reliable, quite accurate.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so mechanical meters certainly are accurate. Obviously, over time

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Speaker 2: they with age, sometimes become inaccurate and may result in

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Speaker 2: fuls that need to be tested. The benefit of the

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Speaker 2: digital meta essentially is that it will enable readings more

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Speaker 2: frequently within a day itself as well. So instead of

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Speaker 2: a meta reader making its way to your property once

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Speaker 2: a month, this digital meter will now record and report

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Speaker 2: multiple readings in a day. That helps residents to buy themselves,

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Speaker 2: track water usage, pick up water leaks, and respond faster

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Speaker 2: to autolaks, either by themselves or reporting leaks to us

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Speaker 2: so that we are able to attend to it. And

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Speaker 2: so essentially, in that sense, because the frequency of readings

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Speaker 2: is now digital, it happens more regularly than the once

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Speaker 2: a month that we currently have it improves ultimately the

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Speaker 2: building and the accuracy of what the resident is being charged.

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Speaker 1: And while we have you with us as I head

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Speaker 1: just to ask about the water situation, I know there

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Speaker 1: was a medial lease put out I can't remember either

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Speaker 1: early today or late yesterday telling us what the dams

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Speaker 1: are below forty nine percent just and the Department of

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Speaker 1: Water and Sanitation they come up with a recommendation around

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Speaker 1: the first of May. Is it that says you need

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Speaker 1: to restrict things? You're saying you might do it earlier.

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Speaker 2: So we already see that municipalities outside of the city

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Speaker 2: have gone into restrictions. At the moment, we don't anticipate

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Speaker 2: unless the rain certainly won't come, that restrictions will be

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Speaker 2: necessary earlier than June. We will re establish or reassess

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Speaker 2: whether or not in June restrictions need to be implemented

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Speaker 2: at that stage. But at that stage we expect, at

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Speaker 2: least according to the South African Weather Service, that there

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Speaker 2: should be rains, volumes of which ostell undetermined. But at

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Speaker 2: that stage we do expect it to be range and

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Speaker 2: hopefully at that time they may not be need for restrictions.

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Speaker 2: But if there is no rain at that moment in

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Speaker 2: June July, we may certainly start to implement restrictions.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so there's nothing immediate other than what is in

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Speaker 1: place already and a request to citizens to use less water.

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Speaker 1: Several people one, two, three, four, five so far are

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Speaker 1: asking or suggesting, or in a particularly paranoid way, insisting

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Speaker 1: that the city is doing this in order to be

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Speaker 1: able to switch off people's water immediately if they don't

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Speaker 1: pay their water bills.

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Speaker 2: No, certainly not.

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Speaker 1: But but does it not give you the opportunity or

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Speaker 1: the technological ability to switch off at the press of

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Speaker 1: a button on a keyboard.

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Speaker 2: No, no, it doesn't enable that. It still would require

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Speaker 2: a manual shut off, at least on my understanding of

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Speaker 2: how this process works. But even before anything is shut off,

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Speaker 2: there's a clear credit control and debt collection policy within

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Speaker 2: the city which governs when and how these restrictions in

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Speaker 2: terms of individual household uses are implemented, So residents will

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Speaker 2: always have an opportunity to make payment arrangements to settle

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Speaker 2: debts before any such action is implemented.

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Speaker 1: And then I know we're going a little later the news,

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Speaker 1: but if you can get a quick answer, A couple

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Speaker 1: of people saying that they already have blue covered digital meters.

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Speaker 1: One listener saying installed about four years ago. Will those

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Speaker 1: meters be replaced again with a new or one as

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Speaker 1: a part of this decade long rollout.

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Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, And the resident is referring to the blue

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Speaker 2: meter covers with a digital interface, and that's very different

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Speaker 2: to the meters that we will be replacing them with

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Speaker 2: because the meter that the listener refers to doesn't have

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Speaker 2: the sim card, let's say, the ability and so the

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Speaker 2: new meters will then replace those will be digital because

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Speaker 2: ultimately the meter can now speak to a backroom digital

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Speaker 2: system that can report multiple times a day and as

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Speaker 2: I said, help improve accuracy of readings and buildings as well.

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Speaker 1: Thank you very much to counselors. I had budrid In,

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Speaker 1: the Mako member for Water and Sanitation,