Government has taken over Morton Jaffray Waterworks to
ensure residents access potable water after Acting President Kembo Mohadi
yesterday facilitated the clearance of water treatment chemicals at the border
while the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) and District Development
Fund (DDF) chipped in with technical assistance.
Pumping of water at Morton Jaffray was expected to resume
by midnight following Government’s intervention, with Acting Harare Mayor
Councillor Enock Mupamawonde also announcing that the city had secured seven
days’ supply of water treatment chemicals from a local company.
Addressing journalists in Harare yesterday, Acting Local
Government, Public Works and National Housing Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi said
Government had lost faith in Harare city fathers as they have failed to provide
basic services that led to the cutting of water supplies for the entire Harare
metropolitan area yesterday.
Minister Ziyambi said the Government set up a committee of
technocrats that will assist council in handling the $37,4 million that was
availed by Treasury last week for capital projects, amid reports that previous grants and loans were grossly
abused.
“The Government has facilitated priority clearance for the
lorry carrying chlorine gas from South Africa. The consignment should arrive
within the next 36 hours. The council has secured enough calcium hypochlorite
granules, also known as HTH, for the next 36 hours.
“We met with the Acting President and immediately we set up
mechanisms to ensure that South African and Zimbabwe revenue authorities
expedite the clearance of those chemicals so that they can arrive within the
next 36 hours.
“Morton Jaffray Waterworks commenced operations earlier
today. The conveyance of the water in trunk lines will commence anytime now and
people can start to expect water in their taps around midnight. A further 35
tonnes of HTH has been secured to provide a stockpile to ensure that this shut
down of the water works does not recur,” he said.
Minister Ziyambi warned not to get into council in order to
secure deals for themselves without providing services.
“We are giving them money for capital projects, but what we
have decided to do is to have a committee to support them, we no longer trust
them, we have in the past given them monies, loans and they bought vehicles so
we want this money to be used for the specific purpose it has been released
hence we are setting up this committee to assist them do that.
“We believe that Harare City Council is not doing its job
and Government cannot continue bailing out the city. It used to be one of the
richest councils and in fact they prioritise other things as opposed to service
delivery and we are now demanding that they become accountable to residents and
we are going to ensure that happens and be strict in terms of the way they
conduct themselves,” he said.
On technical experts, ZINWA acting chief executive officer
Engineer Taurayi Maurikira said the team was already on the ground working at
Morton Jaffrey which was reopened yesterday after getting some local supplies
of chemicals.
“Under the section 5(e) and (i) of ZINWA Act it is
empowered to intervene when there are challenges in local authorities. We hold
the mandate to supply water but it is the local authorities that that have the
powers to distribute it.
“We are part of the technical committees set up by
Government that are looking at Morton Jaffrey by providing technical knowledge
from the production line to the distribution water points,” he said.
District Development Fund (DDF)’s Water Supplies and Maintenance
director Mr Edwin Toriro said it was in process of drilling more boreholes in
Harare to alleviate the water crisis after Government allocated $60 million for
projects.
“Government allocated $60 million for this year which is
meant to cover borehole drilling and installation, irrigation development,
small scale irrigation scheme, small piped water system rehabilitation and hand
pumping rehabilitation,” he said.
The Government’s agency recently drilled 15 boreholes in
Glen View. Herald
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