Letwin Mubonesi
While addressing water shortages that have bedevilled the entire country, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said that government will not disburse funds to local authorities but it will instead provide water treatment chemicals as well as equipment needed for the provision of portable water across the country.
The minister said that government had already done the purchasing of water treatment chemicals and for that reason it would not be giving out money to local authorities.
“This initiative to pay directly to the companies is to avoid bureaucracy in government because water chemicals are important and need to be supplied in earnest. City councils will receive chemicals and not the money”, he said.
The ministry last week availed US$2,2 million to meet local authorities’ water treatment chemicals requirements which include the purchase of chemicals and probable equipment.
The development came after Harare City Council briefly shut down Morton Jaffray Waterworks plant after running out of water purification chemicals. However, during the post-cabinet briefing government lashed out at city council.
“Of greater concern to Cabinet was that such a far-reaching decision was taken without prior consultations with central government. That notwithstanding, Cabinet endorsed the establishment of an inter-ministerial committee comprising the ministers of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing; Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement; Finance and Economic Development and the Harare City Council, to come up with strategies to conclusively resolve the Harare water supply challenges in the short, medium and long-term,” the Cabinet brief read.
Council on the other hand has blamed the crisis on foreign currency shortages, fluctuating interbank market rates and failure by clients to pay over $1 billion owed in water bills and rates. Government is one of the major council debtors but Ncube advised City Council that there should be no sacred cows hence they should collect all outstanding debts even from government.
“I do not have a definite figure, but everyone needs to clear their debts and that includes the government,” he said.
In the long-term, government said it will invest in the construction of Kunzvi Dam, which has been on the cards for decades and the construction can also help to ease water woes in the country. He added that a contractor has since been established and is expected to start work on the project which could ultimately end Harare’s water woes.
“We already have a contractor for the Kunzvi Dam, but we are still working on the finances. I however cannot give timelines, but the implementation will be soon,” Lands and Agriculture minister Perrance Shiri said at the briefing.
Currently Harare relies on Lake Chivero which is now heavily polluted by industrial waste and untreated sewage dumped by the Council due to its inability to treat raw sewerage that is produced daily.
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