HARARE - The Minister of Water Resources and Development, Samuel Sipepa Nkomo, has said that his Ministry would soon convene a meeting with ZINWA and the municipalities who are locked in disputes over the control of water and sewer systems in towns.The dispute has seen ZINWA holding on to the control of water and sewer systems in Gwanda, Beitbridge, Plumtree and Hwange. This stance was despite a government directive for ZINWA to hand back the control of all water reticulation systems to local authorities.
“I am aware of the Gwanda-ZINWA issue and it will be useful to begin to discuss it. Arrangements are being made for the convening of meetings to facilitate our intervention,” said Nkomo.
Local authorities from the affected towns last week met to help come up with solutions to the stand off and resolved that they were going to seek legal advice on the wrangle and possibly take the matter to the courts.
The Mayor of Gwanda, Lionel De Necker, revealed that the four towns had decided to set up a committee that was going to spearhead the move and possibly bring the wrangle to a final positive end.
ZINWA is on record for insisting that they were not going to surrender control of water to these towns as the directive from government was only applicable to the major cities and was not inclusive of these smaller towns.
The company argued that they controlled towns like Gwanda long before the government gave the nod for ZINWA to take over all water systems in the country.
Post published in: World News