Evaluating Advanced Water Metering Infrastructure (AMI) in Cape Town

The City of Cape Town will roll out advanced water metering infrastructure (“smart meters”) for over 50,000 properties in Cape Town beginning in 2026. The researchers will collaborate with the City of Cape Town water department and contractors to develop a randomized rollout plan to estimate the impacts of AMI on outcomes, including water use and revenue recovery, and to decompose the effects into those from improved accuracy of the meters themselves and from their ability to provide near real-time feedback on water use and prices.

Additional communications-based interventions implemented concurrently with the rollout will be used to investigate behavioural questions about how households and firms
choose their water use, what they know about their water use and prices, and what kinds of information change water use and responsiveness to water prices.