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Blessings Chidakwa-Municipal Reporter

Residents yesterday were critical of the Harare City Council for failing to supply adequate water but instead giving numerous excuses over the years including citing routine maintenance at treatment and distribution points.

This comes as the city council announced a dry weekend to pave way for routine maintenance of its water treatment and distribution plants. 

Harare Residents Trust director Mr Precious Shumba said the rate at which the council gives excuses for water shortages shows that the council is not yet at that stage where the citizens can trust and have confidence in them.

“This year however, the City of Harare has announced shut downs of Morton Jaffray Water Works and the Warren Control Water Works at least five times and yet water was still in short supply.

“The key priority is to radically reduce wasted water through leakages and thefts on the water distribution network. Residents already have been experiencing water shortages. They recently reported that they are losing at least 62 percent of treated water through leakages and thefts on the water supply lines,” he said.

Mr Shumba however, said it was a welcome development that there would now be water supplied to Ward 1, Harare south, which for a long time has not received municipal water.

“Therefore, even if they are opening the supply of water to Hopley, it does not increase the number of people receiving municipal water. Instead, it gives rise to prolonged water shortages. The council now has to distribute the current water supplies to more suburbs yet they have not reduced the water losses,” he said.

Mr Shumba said to mitigate the situation there was need to make available water bowsers in the residential areas without adequate community boreholes.

Combined Harare Residents Association programmes manager Mr Rueben Akili yesterday said during these shutdowns residents expect alternative water supplies from water bowsers to be provided.

“As residents we expect that after such upgrades water supply coverage improves, and from our view there hasn’t been significant improvements (quality and quantity) in water supplies after the shutdowns.

“We hope that the local authority is not covering up incapacitation through these perpetual shutdowns,” he said.

In a statement yesterday, acting town clerk Engineer Phakamile Mabhena Moyo said there will be a shutdown of Morton Jaffray and Warren Control Waterworks starting today up to Sunday.

Eng Moyo said the shutdown is earmarked to allow for works to be carried out at Warren Control Pump Station and on the new line that will supply Hopley.

“The works are expected to improve the mechanical performance of the newly installed pumps at Warren Control and also allow Hopley to start accessing water,” he said.

“The shutdown will enable the department to undertake repair works at 3 points on trunk mains to reduce physical water losses currently obtaining in the system. Residents are encouraged to use water sparingly during this period.”