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The water year is now upon us, it is imperative that the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) reiterates that there would be no water for those raw water users who do not hold water abstraction agreements.

The commencement of the water year requires that all prospective users of raw water renew their agreements or enter into new ones in the case of those intending to use water from Zinwa managed dams for the first time.

Water abstraction agreements are a legal requirement in terms of Statutory Instrument 206 of 2001 which requires anyone wishing to abstract water from Zinwa managed dams to do so in terms of an agreement.

The statutory instrument in question reads: “No surface water permit shall be required of a person who wishes to abstract surface water from a water storage works or share of a water storage works vested in the State or the National Water Authority for any purpose mentioned in paragraph (a), but such person must enter into an abstraction agreement with the National Water Authority in terms of subsection (6) of section 39 of the Act.

Section 118 of the Water Act goes on to criminalise the use of water from Zinwa managed dams for purposes other than primary purpose without an agreement.

The section also goes on to provide for the attendant penalties should one be found to be on the wrong side of the law.

It is in this light that Zinwa encourages raw water users, especially farmers who intend to irrigate this winter.

Apart from being a legal requirement, water abstraction agreements allow Zinwa to efficiently and optimally allocate available water amongst users.

This is because water is a finite and strategic resource that needs to be properly and carefully managed.

Without such regulation and management access to water becomes chaotic and unsustainable.

So as the water year gets into full swing Zinwa, as empowered by the Water Act, shall also be carrying out inspections on farms and other raw water users, to ensure compliance with the Act. This will be done to weed out any illegal usage of water.

Use of water by those without agreements tends to distort water demand and jeopardise Zinwa’s ability to plan using the available water resources.

It also has the potential to deprive agreement holders of the water they are legally entitled to.

This is so because technically, illegal users would be eating into other people’s allocations.

For example when Zinwa releases water into a river channel from a dam to meet the requirements of agreement holders downstream and an illegal user siphons out part of that water along the way, the net effect of such action would be the failure by agreement holder to get his legally deserved allocation.

Zinwa therefore continues to call upon raw water users to do the right thing and obtain water abstraction agreements.

Those wishing to enter into these agreements should visit their respective Zinwa Catchment Offices for assistance.

 For more information you can contact the Zinwa Corporate Communications and Marketing Department on [email protected] or [email protected]. You can also visit www.zinwa.co.zw or like the Zimbabwe National Water Authority Facebook Page. You can also follow us on Twitter @zinwawater