Harare water supplies improve

HARARE’S water supply has improved significantly over the last few weeks following interventions by a technical committee set up by the Government last month to address the severe supply challenges facing the capital.

It has emerged that since the appointment of the committee, chaired by University of Zimbabwe Civil Engineering lecturer Professor Hodson Makurira, bulk water production has more than doubled from 150 mega litres a day to about 350 mega litres daily.

The Government has since disbursed about US$1,2 million for the procurement of water treatment chemicals, with Treasury paying suppliers directly to avoid diversion of the funds for other purposes by the city fathers.

In an interview, Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development chief director (water resources and irrigation development) Engineer Tinayeshe Mutazu said: “Government set up a team to support the City of Harare following the general deterioration of water supply in the city.

“Government took steps to intervene very quickly to avert total disaster, primarily a cholera outbreak, which was knocking on the city’s doors.

“Treasury has provided financial resources to the tune of US$1,2 million. The City of Harare will draw down directly from Treasury.

“Treasury is providing that funding through direct payments to service providers.”

He said as a result of the committee’s interventions, water supply to the city had improved significantly.

“The team has made progress, the first achievement being that they have managed to arrest the deterioration of water supply. Supply was almost coming down to zero, to a point where the city could not provide any water. This was not because there was no water in the dams, but because they could not pump untreated water into the city.

“So, we moved from a point where daily supply was hovering around 150 mega litres to the current 350 mega litres.

“But the desire is to get to above 520 mega litres per day, which is the current installed capacity.”

He said owing to Harare’s dysfunctional rates billing system, the city was unable to raise funds for procurement of water treatment chemicals.

“The major challenge that has been affecting Harare was shortage of water treatment chemicals. The city could not procure the chemicals because revenue collection is very low on account of their billing system, which has collapsed,” he said.

“We are starting on a point where we acknowledge that there was serious mismanagement by the City of Harare, which led to the near collapse of the water value supply chain.”

He added: “The committee reports weekly for easy turnaround and monitoring of what they would have done.”

In October, Government appointed the technical committee and tasked it with developing and implementing a comprehensive plan to improve water availability and quality in the city.

It was also tasked with increasing and maintaining water production at around 520 mega litres a day and reducing non-revenue water from 59 percent to 55 percent.

Non-revenue water is water that has been produced or treated but is lost or unaccounted for before it reaches the customer’s meter.

The water can be lost through leaks, theft or inaccurate metering.

The committee will also ensure improved potable water supply coverage in the city from 40 percent to 60 percent.