Harare Water Woes A Man Made Chaos

By Loyd Matare

The City of Harare is facing a severe water crisis, struggling to meet the demand of delivering 800 megaliters of water to its residents whilst most of the water is being lost due to burst pipes which are not being attended to by city council.

Currently, the city is only pumping a staggering 350 megaliters, a drop in the ocean considering the demands of the citizens.

This shortage has forced many residents to resort to drilling boreholes as an alternative source of water, particularly in areas like Mabvuku where tap water is a rare commodity, whilst most of the water is lost through burst pipes in the city.

According to Eng Phakamile Mabhena Moyo, the city’s Director of Water and Acting Town Clerk, the city’s non-revenue water stands at 60 percent, with 20 percent attributed to physical losses and 40 percent to commercial losses.

“Of late, maybe before, for most of last year, we were pumping around 350 megalitres per day and in August, our other source of water, Prince Edward Dam, ran dry, and we decommissioned Prince Edward, where we were getting in about 60 megalitres per day.

The crisis has been exacerbated by the decommissioning of Prince Edward Dam, which previously supplied 60 megaliters of water per day. The city’s remaining water sources are struggling to cope with the demand, resulting in widespread water shortages.

Meanwhile, Mabhena also attributed the failure to meet standards to ageing infrastructure, vandalism of pipes and residents’ non-payment of water bills.

“This is due to non-functional metres, water thefts, and basically, it’s more of we cannot account for the water in terms of payments. People are not paying for that for one reason or another. So, we estimate our physical losses to be around 20% of what we pump. But most of our non-revenue water is from what we call commercial losses.

“The city’s water infrastructure is in dire need of upgrading. We are doing our best to address the situation, but it’s a complex issue that requires a comprehensive solution,” said Mabhena.

When asked about what plans the City of Harare is taking to mitigate the crisis Mabhena said “the mandate to produce additional water is now been given to Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) and Kunzvi project is underway and we hope some of these projects will alleviate some of our projects”.

Furthermore, residents have been complaining about the quality of water supplied by the City of Harare, citing concerns over its safety for consumption. The water is sometimes smelling, and many fear it may be contaminated. Despite these concerns, Mabhena assured that the city is treating the water to the required standards, albeit using more chemicals than usual.