The Harare City Council has called on the government to speed up the construction of Kunzvi and Musami Dams which authorities hope could solve the city’s worsening water problems.
City fathers Tuesday sat for a special council meeting where they resolved to engage central government to help speed up dam constructions and the creation of new water sources for the troubled local authority.
Acting Director Harare Water, Engineer Mabhena Moyo, presented a report during the special council meeting indicating that the city is currently servicing 52% of its population with tap water supplies, with the rest not receiving any water at all.
“There is little production from Prince Edward Waterworks as the dams that supply the treatment works have dried up,” he said.
The report indicated that the city is currently suffering more losses at Morton Jaffray waterworks because of the poor state of raw water.
“Raw water quality has deteriorated to an extent that the pH has averaged 9.46 resulting in more losses through backwashing of filters,” he added.
“Production at Morton Jaffray averaged 301 megalitres per day for the past 19 days (1-19 July) and Prince Edward has been operating once a week to average water production of 8 megalitres per week,” said Moyo.
Harare Mayor Herbert Gomba has set up a four-member team to engage government on the city’s worsening water crisis.
Deputy Mayor Enock Mupamawonde will, however, lead the team that will meet with Zinwa to push for the speeding up of the construction of new water sources.