Suburban
Diana Nherera
Load shedding is said to be affecting water supplies in Greendale with residents sometimes going for weeks without supplies.
The unavailability of water treatment chemicals is also affecting City of Harare’s demand management programme meant to distribute water equally in the city.
Speaking at a Ward 9 Feedback meeting held recently at Greendale Sports Club, Engineer Chinyanya from council’s water department said at times the water will be available but due to power cuts as a result of load shedding, it cannot be pumped to households.
“Greendale is supposed to receive water on a Sunday and Monday for two days but we are mostly affected by power supplies because water is supposed to be pumped from Morton Jaffray Waterworks to Warren Control and Letombo pump station that directly feeds Greendale and that is the only route we expect supplies of water for this area. At times there is water at Msasa but there is no power.
“So if there is no power, there is not much we can do,” he said.
On the water treatment chemicals situation, Eng Chinyanya said council owes most of its suppliers huge amounts of money.
“As City of Harare, we are facing challenges in as far as stocking water treatment chemicals is concerned. The city owes Chemplex Zimphos over Z$80million.
“Recently we held a meeting to make sure we secure supplies especially of aluminium sulphate which is one of the key chemicals. We require five loads a day,” he said.
Eng Chinyanya also spoke about the quality of water the municipality is providing to residents of the capital city.
“Morton Jaffray is the only one pumping water. Prince Edward has since been decommissioned because the dams are dry. The raw water that we are treating is quite bad. This has been caused by the fact that the dams did not spill due to low rainfall.”
He said in January this year, the city managed to produce 206 megalitres against a target of 300 megalitres if chemicals were available and a plant capacity of 600 megalitres.
“With this reduced amount, demand management wasn’t possible due to the little amount of water,” said Eng Chinyanya.
He said the city is trying to ensure its water treatment chemical supplies are stable and its revenue collection only targets payment of debts owed to their chemical suppliers.
Eng Chinyanya also said due to elevation, most areas in Greendale cannot receive water.
“Water that is supposed to be coming to Greendale should come in two ways; from Msasa where there is a pump station and the other is supposed to be coming from the Highlands reservoirs.
“There is the side where it is a challenge because there are pumps from Warren Control that are supposed to bring water that side.
“They are supposed to be seven but only two are running and we are trying to fix the other one to make them three.
“These are big pumps and require a lot of money and there are a number of partners that have promised to fund us. The first one is ZimFund, which promised US$16million.
“The World Bank has also promised us US$20m and Government through the devolution funds promised around RTGS$100m.
“So if those funds are to come, you should be receiving some water,” he said.
