Harare- At the just-concluded 116th Zimbabwe Agricultural Show (ZAS), one name cut through the noise of agritech and commercial farming displays—Helcraw Water.

It was not because it had the flashiest booth, but because it brought a solution that speaks directly to the urban crisis that underpins every sector on that show floor: water security.

On 28 August 2026, Helcraw walked away with the Best Affordable Housing and Urban Development Exhibit award, a feat made all the more striking by the fact that this was the company’s first time on the ZAS roster. No legacy, no patronage, just a data-backed, infrastructure-deep proposition that judges deemed too critical to ignore.

A Convergence Play, Not Just a Metering Pitch

While the show’s theme—“Powering Growth: Where Agriculture, Technology and Commerce Converge”, celebrated cross-sector momentum, Helcraw demonstrated that convergence is meaningless without a reliable water backbone. Their showcase went far beyond the familiar smart-meter pitch.

Visitors to the Helcraw stand were walked through an end-to-end urban water overhaul currently being rolled out in partnership with the City of Harare. The integrated scope includes smart prepaid water meters with real-time digital billing, rehabilitation and replacement of Harare’s decaying pipe network, a major upgrade to the Morton Jaffray Water Treatment Plant, targeting a leap from 350 million to 520 million litres per day, GIS-integrated asset management and fault-reporting systems and customer support infrastructure designed to close the accountability loop.

The numbers behind the project are what captured industry attention. Helcraw is targeting a reduction in non-revenue water, currently hemorrhaging at 60% down to 35%, while pushing municipal revenue collection from 48% to 90%. If realised, those figures wouldn’t just stabilise Harare’s water balance; they would fundamentally rewire the city’s fiscal capacity to maintain and expand its own infrastructure.

‘You Can’t Power Growth Without Water’

That was the message from Helcraw Water Managing Director, Zodeck Muchoko, who framed the award as validation of a systemic approach rather than a product launch.

“This award is recognition of an innovative approach to solving a challenge that affects households, businesses and the entire economy. Smart metering, modern infrastructure, improved treatment capacity and digital management must work together if we are to create a water system that can support a growing city.”

Muchoko stressed that Helcraw is not in the business of firefighting water shortages, but of fireproofing the system itself. That distinction resonated strongly with ZAS attendees, from municipal officials to property developers and industrialists who have long treated water unreliability as an unavoidable cost of doing business in Zimbabwe.

A National Showcase with Eyes Beyond Harare

Beyond the trophy, ZAS provided Helcraw with something arguably more valuable: a live, public-facing laboratory. For six days, residents, investors, and potential partners could physically interact with the smart metering technology, see dashboards in action, and question engineers about the rehabilitation roadmap.

That visibility is strategic. Helcraw’s model is deliberately architected as a replicable template—not a one-off Harare fix. If the performance targets hold, the company is poised to offer a turnkey urban water modernisation package for other Zimbabwean municipalities battling identical demons: ageing mains, revenue leakage, and political paralysis around tariff reform.

In that sense, Helcraw is quietly repositioning itself from a metering contractor to a smart-city enabler—one that understands water infrastructure as economic infrastructure, not social welfare.

From Show Floor to Concrete Reality

Muchoko was blunt about the ultimate yardstick: “The real measure of our success will be seen on the ground, more reliable water, lower losses, stronger municipal revenues and infrastructure capable of serving Harare for generations.”

For now, the ZAS award gives Helcraw Water a powerful springboard. But the industry will be watching not the glass trophy, but the flow meters and whether Harare’s taps can finally deliver on the promise of progress.

Helcraw Water is an urban water infrastructure and technology company specialising in end-to-end modernisation of municipal water systems.

Through strategic public-private partnerships, it deploys smart metering, pipe rehabilitation, digital management platforms, and treatment-capacity upgrades to drive efficient, accountable, and sustainable water delivery across Africa’s growing cities.