Herald Correspondent
HARARE City Council has admitted it is having a nightmare in meeting the demand for water by residents amid revelations that Prince Edward Dam is virtually empty and even if Morton Jaffray was to be fully rehabilitated demand will always outstrip supply.

Council’s acting corporate communications manager Mr Michael Chideme told Star FM on Monday that council was unable to supply water to everyone.

“We are not able to supply all the households in Harare because our water supply is low in terms of capacity.

“We are still improving our capacity at Morton Jaffray and right now we have very low capacity at Prince Edward Treatment plant because we are not getting enough water at Prince Edward.

“The dam that supplies Prince Edward is almost like gone. There is no dam and there is no water there. So all the water that we used to treat at Prince Edward that supplied the southern suburbs is no longer coming from there so it is under depression,” he said.

Mr Chideme said council was currently refurbishing the Morton Jaffray Plant but the water supply would still not be enough as the city was growing.

“At Morton Jaffray we are making inroads. We are improving the supply through the installation of equipment that we are currently installing but even if we manage to come to the design capacity of the plant, we would not be able to supply the whole of Harare with water.

“This is precisely because the city is growing and we have not expanded in terms of our water networks and sources,” said Mr Chideme.

He highlighted the need to invest in dams to ensure constant water supply.

“What we need are more dams, more sources of water and on this we need the support of stakeholders which include Government to come up with money so that we can have more dams.

“We have had plans for a very long time to have the Kunzvi Dam but nothing has materialised as yet for us to start seeing the construction of the dam on the ground. So that is where the problems are in terms of the water supply,” he said.

Mr Chideme said the city was getting its water from Lake Manyame, Lake Chivero and Darwendale Dam.

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