Source: Harare braces for more water cuts – DailyNews Live
Helen Kadirire 24 May 2017
HARARE – Harare residents must brace for more water cuts, as council moves
to repair countless burst pipes across the city.
This comes as water supplies are expected to resume, after most suburbs
went for days without the precious commodity following the shutdown of
Warren Control Pump Station last weekend.
Suburbs affected include the Avenues, Msasa, Hatfield, Greendale,
Workington, Graniteside, Mabvuku and Tafara.
In an interview with the Daily News, Harare City Council (HCC)
spokesperson Michael Chideme said there are many burst water pipes, which
needed urgent attention.
“Over the past month, we have received numerous reports of burst pipes.
However, we have not been attending to them because it would translate
into dry days for the city. But recently, we noticed that if we continue
ignoring the matter, more water would be lost, which is why the control
station had to be shut down to make way for repairs,” he said.
He added that the burst pipes around the city were mainly caused by water
pressure, although there has been concern that the infrastructure is
antiquated.
The continued water cuts come as refurbishment of Morton Jaffray (MJ)
Waterworks has been postponed to December.
HCC director of water Hosea Chisango said the city had anticipated
completion by March, but there were some delays in the disbursement of
funds.
The water treatment works is undergoing refurbishment after the China Exim
Bank extended a $144 million loan to the local authority.
Once completed, it is set to increase supply coverage to 72 000
households, reduce non-revenue water by 25 percent and increase revenue by
about $21,6 million annually.
“Though the work left is small, we have given the contractor until
December this year to complete the whole refurbishment. What we want is
for MJ to be completed then we can look at other treatment works such as
Warren Control,” Chisango said.
“The delays were because there was a time when the contractor stopped
working due to disbursement delays. The money has not yet been released
but we are going ahead with work.
“We, however, expect output to be completed by August or September and
those works that were done manually should be automated by then also,” he
said.
Currently, HCC can only provide 450 mega-litres of water per day, against
a daily demand of 900 mega-litres.
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