By Kudakwashe Pembere
As Harare’s water challenges appear to be a thorn in the flesh for both the local authority and central government, a technical committee appointed to come up with solutions to mitigate this crisis has been afforded another 100 days to round up their task.
This on Wednesday was said by the Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Dr Anxious Masuka during a progress report presentation of the committee’s first 100 days.
He said Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa in October last year tasked a committee to support the City of Harare’s water provision efforts.
“We then appointed a technical committee made up of outstanding Zimbabweans led by Professor Hodson Makurira of the University of Zimbabwe to assist the city of Harare, Norton, Epworth, Ruwa, and Chitungwiza to increase supply of water. So, this was initially for 100 days, and the 100 days expired today, which is why we have requested them to give up the 100-day report, although they were giving us progress reports during the 100-day period. And we had an occasion to visit some of the sites together with the City of Harare,” he said.
He noted that their tenure had been extended by another 100 days.
“The term of this technical committee has been extended for a further 100 days so that they can complete the critical activities that are ongoing,” Dr Masuka said.
The Agriculture Minister who is the Water and Sanitation Hygiene (WASH) National Action Committee chair said the Finance Ministry had availed ZW$10 billion (US$1.6 million) towards buying chemicals needed for water treatment in Harare.
“We have a report on the four major aspects that they were tasked to do. The first one related to increasing water production at the two plants, Prince Edward and Morton Jaffray, to 520 megalitres a day through the provision of chemicals.
“And this was dependent on them receiving an amount of USD1.2 million which was equivalent to one month’s supply of chemicals so that we could, as central government, assist the City of Harare. ZW$10 billion was availed to the City of Harare to go towards the procurement of chemicals and that’s equivalent to USD 1.5 million to USD1.6 million,” he said. “So that’s central government assisting the city of Harare for this emergency cause.”
He added, “The City of Harare has also been able to mobilize its own resources to ensure that they ring-fence even up to 45 percent of the rates revenue towards the water account. This has enabled an improvement in the generation of water, production of water at Morton Jaffray.”
He noted that the Health Minister Dr Douglas Mombeshora encouraged the drilling of more boreholes to complement the current water supply.
“The Minister of Health and Child Care highlighted to us that contrary to most views, we should actually not stop borehole drilling. We must accelerate the borehole drilling program and ensure that we establish reservoirs that we treat with appropriate tablets so that the four pathogens that have been identified can be neutralized,” he said. “And therefore, this technical committee has now been given an additional task to, as expeditiously as humanly possible, to look at the emergency areas informed by the water and hygiene situation and informed by the Minister of Health and Child Care, the priority areas for drilling for Harare, for Chitungwiza, for Norton, for Epworth and for Ruwa. And we will not confine ourselves to that.”
He added, “Any drilling would deplete the water table. We have said that in terms of the Water Act and Zinwa Act, any drilling must be notified to Zinwa. It’s not because we want Zinwa to collect some money, it is because of this underground water system, that hydrology that we have to monitor.
“And so that they can inform you at their boreholes in the vicinity, they can inform you about the depths, they can inform you about contamination that might likely be occurring in that area. So anyone who contemplates drilling is very welcome because that compliments the City of Harare, government efforts, but we must just follow the procedure.
“And that’s why I issued a statement in that regard, that the procedure is to apply to ZINWA and if not to our ministry to be able to guide you as you assist us. We want you to be able to assist. We are actually moving to a phase where you will see us doing cluster borehole drilling and then we will be able to convey this to some communities.”
