Water for sale

This development follows revelations that Harare City Council har reduced the amount of water allocated to the dormitory town situated 27km from Harare from 30 megalitres to 16 megalitres daily.

Chitungwiza gets its water from Harare City Council and requires at least 43 megalitres of water daily to cater for its population of over 1, 5 million residents.

Since 2010, only 30 megalitres were being supplied to the dormitory town for four days a week. Lately, the town has been receiving 16 megalitres of water for four days a week. Town Clerk, George Makunde confirmed that HCC had decreased the amount of water being allocated to the town. “It is true that our water allocation from HCC has been further reduced. HCC is rationing water supplies to us because they can only give us what they can afford. We do not have our own water treatment plant and this makes it very difficult for us to address the water challenges in this town,” said Makunde.

For communities in Seke, the water situation is dire because they depend on water pumped into a reservoir in their area. Owing to the geographical layout of the pipelines pumping water to the Makoni reservoir, residents in Seke can only get water after residents in Zengeza have accessed the liquid.

While their counterparts in Zengeza get water four times a week, Seke residents have to endure weeks with no water supplies.

The council’s resuscitation team’s Acting Town Clerk, Fungai Mbetsa, is on record saying that the satellite town had the capacity to run its own water supplies if it was weaned from the City of Harare.

He said the town could utilise Prince Edward Water Works because it is closer to the town than using water from the capital.

Since last month, communities in Seke’s Unit K, N, O and P among others spent close to four weeks with no water supplies.

Residents who spoke to The Zimbabwean described the development as a potential health bomb. Faith Guramatunhu from Unit P said residents relied on boreholes.

“The owners of the wells are now charging us for water,” she said. She revealed that the cost of a 20l bucket of water ranged between two and five rand.