Chronicle Editor
Nqobile Tshili,nqobile,[email protected]
GOVERNMENT has said that addressing Bulawayo’s water woes is a top priority as it seeks to ease the burden on residents who now endure 120 hours of water shedding.
The city is providing water only twice per week as part of measures to conserve little volumes in major supply dams following poor inflows this season due to drought.
Government has further noted that most local authorities are struggling to provide potable water to citizens.
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Ziyambi Ziyambi, said Cabinet has put Bulawayo on the top of the Government’s agenda in terms of mobilising funds to address water problems.
“Cabinet agreed that we would start with Bulawayo and ensure that we solve the water problem in Bulawayo first and concentrate there and pool our resources to ensure that it is done in one area then we move to the other,” he said.
“We have realised that the water reticulation system is now archaic. So, trying to rehabilitate that water reticulation system has been a nightmare, not only for Bulawayo, but even for Harare as well.”
The minister, who was responding to questions in Parliament, said while local authorities were mandated to provide water to citizens, Government has seen the shortcomings of local authorities, hence it is scaling up its involvement in ensuring that citizens have water.
“The policy is that urban water supply is done by local authorities within each particular setting. What has happened over the years is that our urban local authorities have been failing to do that,” he said.
“What the Government is now doing is getting in to work with the local authorities with a view of ensuring that we solve the water problem,” said Minister Ziyambi.
“So, Government indeed acknowledges that the majority of our local authorities in urban areas have failed and we are coming now with a plan to ensure that we help the local authorities tasked with ensuring that there is potable water availability within urban local authorities.”-@nqotshili
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