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Virginia Kashiri Herald Reporter
Harare City Council yesterday opened its main water treatment works, Morton Jaffray, to Harare residents for them to appreciate the water treatment process.

Speaking during a tour of the plant, the city’s acting water manager Engineer Tapiwa Kunyadini said the city had increased water production by 72 megalitres. This followed the rehabilitation of the plant, courtesy of the $144 million loan from the China Exim Bank.

“When we started the rehabilitation we were producing only 300 megalitres per day on average. At the moment we are producing an average of 450 megalitres per day. The capacity of this plant is 604 megalitres per day. With the works done so far, we can produce 520 megalitres per day, but we are producing 450 due to chemical shortage,” said Eng Kunyadini.

Eng Kunyadini said the erratic water supplies were caused by shortage of foreign currency to buy treatment chemicals. Harare and its satelite towns consumes 1 200 megalitres of water a day. The city has been battling water shortages for a longtime, with residents blaming the situation on poor governance at Town House.

Residents want to see a permanent solution, but the MDC-T run council has dismally failed to ensure constant supplies of water. This exposes residents to waterborne diseases like cholera and typhoid. As a result of the water supply challenges, some residents are resorting to shallow and unprotected wells.