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Innocent Ruwende Municipal Reporter
French water treatment giant, Veola Africa is engaging Government with a view to investing in the country’s water sector after holding several meetings with Harare City Council. Officials from the company have visited the country on three occasions and carried out feasibility studies to gauge the extent of Harare’s water woes. On his third visit, Veola Africa director, Mr Christophe Meiller, is believed to have held separate high-level meetings with Environment, Water and Climate Minister Oppah Muchinguri Kashiri and Harare Mayor Councillor Bernard Manyenyeni over three days.

French Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mr Laurent Delahousse was also keenly involved in the discussions. Clr Manyenyeni confirmed the meetings saying council was seeking to improve the city’s water supplies.

“Yes, I had meetings with them in France and here. As I previously said, the search for Harare water solutions continues and we seek to improve whatever we currently have,” said Clr Manyenyeni.

“We have no fixed agreement with any party. The company wants to improve existing water management in the city,” he said. The company says it wants to improve water management as well as construct a water treatment plant to end Harare’s perennial water woes. On his first visit last year, Mr Meiller said they had worked in 14 African countries, including Morocco, Gabon, Namibia, South Africa, Mozambique, Ghana and Kenya.

Clr Manyenyeni said despite the city entering an agreement with China Exim Bank under a $144 million loan to rehabilitate Morton Jaffray Water Works, they still required other partnerships and Veola was promising to bring expertise.

He said the challenge with the China Exim Bank loan was lack of a superior supervising consulting authority, which Veola was going to provide. The city used part of the $144 million loan from China, which was meant for water reticulation, to buy 25 luxury cars, which included Land Rovers.

City authorities also came under fire for inflating prices and other unscrupulous procurement procedures, which resulted in millions of dollars being abused. The Harare water department has been failing to cope with water demand over the years mainly because the original infrastructure was designed to serve a population of only 300 000.

The city’s population has since increased to 2,5 million people without a corresponding expansion of water infrastructure.