GWERU residents went for a third straight day yesterday without running water after Zesa cut power supplies at Gweru City Council’s water treatment plants over non-payment of a $247 million debt.
Zesa disconnected power at the city’s treatment plants at
two of its main water sources, White Waters and Gwenhoro dams.
Zesa also disconnected Town House resulting in council
failing to collect revenue.
Council was forced to resort to a generator which was
reportedly running out of fuel.
In May last year, Zesa switched off council’s water
treatment plants over a debt of $143 million and only restored supplies after
the local authourity committed to a monthly payment plan of $13 million.
White Waters water treatment plant feeds areas such as
Ridgemont, Riverside while the rest of Gweru is fed from Gwenhoro dam that is
pumped at the Range booster.
The development is exposing residents to risk of diseases,
such as cholera, diarrhoea, typhoid and dysentery as they resort to unsafe
water sources.
Some residents are taking advantage of the rains by
harvesting water from rooftops.
Some have turned to boreholes.
In a notice to members of the public, acting town clerk Mr
Vakayi Douglas Chikwekwe apologised to Zesa and the residents for the power
cut.
“We would like to apologise to ZETDC for earlier advising
that there is a power outage at the Range booster. The correct information is
that as a local authority we have been cut off by ZETDC at the Range booster,
White Waters waterworks, and TownHouse for non-payment of electricity bills,”
he said.
He said they had engaged Zesa for a payment plan adding
that water supplies would be restored once power is restored.
“We owe Zesa about $247 million and we are working on a
payment plan,” said Mr Chikwekwe.
Zesa Southern Region general manager for Gibson Kasipo
yesterday declined to comment, referring all questions to the local authority.
A Zesa official speaking on condition of anonymity said,
“Out of all the money unpaid by ZETDC customers in the Midlands province, the
city of Gweru owes 40percent alone. Several letters were written to council
requesting them to come forward and make a payment plan but they didn’t
respond.”
“Gweru residents, at home and in clinics or hospitals need to have access to clean and safe water and that right is infringed when they go for three days like in this case without running water. I think Gweru and Zesa bosses should have taken time to at least find each other before the later endangered residents’ lives,” he said.
The shutting down of the councils’ water pumping stations
and the administrative offices has once again exposed the vulnerability of city
finances exacerbated by non-payment of rates by ratepayers.
GCC is battling to recover about $1billion in unpaid bills
by residents, commercial and Government entities.
Over the years, the GCC budget has been underperforming due
to low appetite by residents and other stakeholders to pay their bills.
Due to non-payment of bills by ratepayers, the city council
was now struggling to clear its debt to service providers, particularly its
three major creditors, Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra), ZETDC and the Local
Authorities Pension Fund (LAPF).
The latest setback comes barely a fortnight after the city elected a new mayor, Councillor Hamutendi Kombayi, who replaced Dr Josiah Makombe, who was recalled from his position by the MDC-T. Chronicle
0 comments:
Post a Comment