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The Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) will next Monday join hundreds of other organisations that will be exhibiting at one of the country’s premier exhibitions, the Harare Agricultural Show. The annual showcase, which runs from Monday to Saturday next week, provides a unique platform for organisations to reconnect with their clients and stakeholders in a largely non-formal environment.

As such Zinwa will be taking advantage of this platform to showcase its products and service as well as clear certain widely held misconceptions about its operations.

The 2018 Harare Agricultural Show theme; From field to Industry: Produce Connect Develop, cannot be more apt. The Zinwa exhibition will be guided by this theme and the Authority will seek to explain its critical role in the country’s socio-economic development.

It will seek to show to the nation, how its activities over the years have gone a very long way in enabling economic growth from the primary to the tertiary levels. It will also showcase how its various programmes have helped the nation attain food and water security and consequently make strides towards employment creation, poverty alleviation.

Zinwa will therefore use this year’s show articulate issues that include the ongoing Command Water Harvesting Programme which has transformed lives in many parts of the country. The programme entails Zinwa assisting communities in the building of weirs and the repair of small communal dams so that communities can have improved access to water.

Upon its completion, the programme will see over 500 weirs constructed around the country. The programme also entails the drilling of boreholes in dry areas so that communities can have safe and reliable sources of water.

Once again, Zinwa will also take advantage of the show to help people understand the relationship and difference between local authorities and itself.

There still exist some serious misconceptions that Zinwa supplies water to urban areas such as Harare and is thus responsible for the water challenges residents may be experiencing.

The correct position is that Zinwa only supplies raw water to local authorities from its dams. The local authorities are in turn responsible for the treatment and distribution of water to residents within their areas of jurisdiction.

Zinwa has also prepared information packages for use during the show to help farmers understand the country’s water resources management laws and how the laws affect farmers in their business.

So there will be information relating to water abstraction agreements which irrigating farmers and other raw water users are required to possess before they can start using water from Zinwa managed dams. The information will be complete with the prevailing water tariffs for various raw water user categories. The authority will take the opportunity to also assist raw water users on how the Zinwa Catchment system works.

The show is also coming at a time when winter is over and temperatures are beginning to rise. In most cases, the rise in temperatures also a trigger a rise in water demand as more water would be needed to irrigate crops and for domestic consumption.

At the 2018 show, Zinwa will take the opportunity to share with those visiting its stand, information on the importance of water conservation in all the spheres of life. Zinwa will be sharing with the public the various ways in which water can be saved in the fields, in the homes and in industries.

Updates will also be given on a number of ongoing dam construction projects that include Marowanyati Dam, Gwayi-Tshangani Dam and Semwa Dam

For more information you contact the Zinwa Corporate Communications and Marketing Department on [email protected] or visit www.zinwa.co.zw  Alternatively you can like the Zimbabwe National Water Authority Facebook Page or follow us on Twitter @zinwawater