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Paidamoyo Chipunza Senior Reporter

Harare City Council has been ordered to ensure there is safe, constant and adequate supply of clean water during the national lockdown to combat the deadly Covid-19 pandemic.

The order gives the city fathers an option to provide bulk water supplies, but using bowsers to avoid crowds.

The High Court judgment delivered on Tuesday also ordered the municipality to provide maintenance schedules for all dysfunctional boreholes within 24 hours of the judgment.

Enforcement officers should be deployed at communal water points to ensure people accessing water adhere to the social distancing principle.

The ministries of Local Government and Public Works, and Health and Child Care, which were cited as respondents, were tasked to provide oversight in the implementation of the order.

The Ministry of Finance and Economic Development was ordered to immediately assist the local authority with resources to ensure provision of safe and adequate water to residents.

The ruling followed an urgent chamber application by the Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) seeking an order compelling Government and City of Harare to immediately contract bulk water service providers to provide mobile water tanks to ease crowding at community boreholes.

The lockdown is the principal measure announced by President Mnangagwa in an address to the nation last week.

Though most businesses closed, essential services and producers and retailers of essential goods will continue to be open, including food shops, pharmacies and informal food markets.

Power and water supplies would be given high priority, said President Mnangagwa during the address, adding that the Government will work with local authorities to ensure regular supply of water to residential areas.

As it stands, the city is producing 170 megalitres of water per day against a demand of 1 200 megalitres, seriously compromising household hygiene.

It was CHRA’s contention that residents in the high-density suburbs were gathering at boreholes to get water for domestic purposes.