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the city’s water mains and fetching water from unprotected sources.
However, Harare Water director Engineer Christopher Zvobgo promised an improvement in water supply by Wednesday this week.

He said the Harare City Council had finished repairs on five of the eight major leaks on the two water mains from Morton Jaffray to Warren Control Pump Station.
“The water situation will stabilise by Wednesday. Levels in our water reservoirs are picking very fast,” he said.
The leaks meant Harare was losing 30 million litres of treated water daily for the past two weeks.

The city requires US$2 million every month to buy water purification chemicals.
The loss implies loss of several thousands of American dollars.
As Eng Zvobgo gave the assurance – residents were still enduring hard times.

Mr Charles Mudokwani of Mabelreign who was among a group of residents fetching water from vandalised water mains in the suburb along Harare Drive complained that council was not doing enough to improve the city’s water situation.
“We have not had water for one and half weeks.

“They should make alternative arrangements and ensure that the closures do not deny us of water supplies,” he said.
Mrs Fortunate Patarawo who was doing her laundry at the site said she was tired of walking long distances to fetch water and do her laundry.
Mr Tonderayi Nyamande urged the city to “sort out the water issue” immediately.

Eng Zvobgo, however, said his department managed to “seal five leaks” on one of the major pipes from Morton Jaffray Water Treatment Plant.
“We resumed pumping last night (Saturday) and the situation looks very good. We also managed to add one more pump bringing the number to six,” he said.
Eng Zvobgo said the additional pump had increased pumping capacity by an additional 24 megalitres which is enough to feed the high density suburbs of Mabvuku and Tafara for two days.

Of the two pipes the first one was installed in 1972 and the other in 1994.
This means the pipes are old and in need of replacement. The average lifespan of such pumps is 10 years.
Eng Zvobgo said there would be another shut-down next weekend to allow repairs to three other leaks on the second pipeline.

Mayor Muchadeyi Masunda last week on Friday said the shutdown would “allow for emergency maintenance works to be carried out along the pumping mains”.
Harare and the surrounding towns of Chitungwiza, Ruwa, Epworth and Norton require 1 200 megalitres of water daily but the city only manages to provide on average 600 megalitres.

Partial shutdowns have in the past resulted in water shortages for periods of up to a week after resumption of water production and pumping to water reservoirs.
The progress in water delivery that had been recorded in the past few months was fast diminishing as millions of litres were lost every minute through leaks.