Harare City Council is set to declare the water situation a
state of emergency to allow partners to come on board, as some of the dams it
relies on have dried up due to drought.
The city council has already decommissioned Prince Edward
Waterworks because of the poor water supplies to the station. The city is also
battling to procure water chemicals due to the shortage of foreign currency.
On average, the city requires between US$2,5 million and
US$2,8 million monthly to procure water chemicals.
To alleviate the situation, three companies have responded
to the city’s call for alternative water treatment solutions for Morton Jaffray
water treatment works.
The local authority is using a cocktail of compounds of up
to a dozen to treat water.
In an interview, environmental management committee
chairperson Councillor Kudzai Kadzombe said the situation had reached alarming
levels, hence the need to declare the situation an emergency.
“Seke and Harava dams have dried up, forcing council to
decommission the Prince Edward Waterworks, which produces over 80 million
litres daily,” she said.
“The drought comes at a time pollution and a dilapidated
water reticulation system are at centre
stage.”
The city’s environment management committee met this week
and resolved to declare the situation a state of emergency.
Clr Kadzombe has urged residents to develop coping
mechanisms while lasting solutions are being pursued.
“When we get to a situation like the one we are in now, we
have to be prepared as a city and as a nation to survive in that mode,”
she said.
“We are going to make a full presentation at the full
council next week to try and bring interim solutions such as water bowsers,
sink deeper boreholes to cushion our residents from the water crisis.”
Clr Kadzombe said the long-term solution was to have
additional water sources.
Harare has been facing water problems and the city recently
introduced water rationing and a timetable to go with it.
The recent Monetary Policy Statement which requires
suppliers to get forex at the interbank rate has also gravely affected water
supply, hence the city now requires more money to purchase water treatment chemicals.
The city also said there were growing calls by
environmentalists to ban urban agriculture in inappropriate places and that
resources should be availed to rehabilitate sewage works in all local
authorities that pollute the Manyame River, Harare included. Herald
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