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Herald Reporter
Residents of western suburbs will have no water for the greater part of today following a mechanical fault that nearly flooded the Morton Jaffray Waterworks last night.

The fault, which occurred within the premises of the plant at 7pm on the 1,3 metre pipe that feeds into the Lochinvar Reservoir, supplies the western suburbs. The fault damaged some parts which needed replacement. Harare City acting communications manager Mr Michael Chideme said city engineers were working round the clock to rectify the problem.

“Our engineers are already on site and are carrying out the de-watering exercise to enable them to do the repairs,” said Mr Chideme.

“We cannot pump water into the Lochinvar Reservoir as it is. Residents should bear with us as we do our best to rectify this unexpected challenge that fell upon us this evening (last night).”

Water supplies are expected to normalise this evening.

The leakage comes at time when Harare City Council early this month said it had begun a six-month-long rehabilitation of its main waterworks.

It said residents would experience water shortages mostly on weekends until July as it begins the refurbishment of equipment at the Morton Jaffray Water Treatment Plant.