City water shortages return

Herald Reporter
Water shortages returned to Harare’s eastern suburbs at the weekend amid repo-rts that pumps at Morton Jaffray Water Works were not operating at full capacity.
Since Friday, residents of Msasa, Greendale, Mabvuku, Tafara and other places have been without water.
Harare City Council spokesperson Mr Leslie Gwindi attributed this to erratic electricity supplies at Morton Jaffray Water Works.
Mr Gwindi said council raised the issue with power utility Zesa several times but nothing was done until yesterday when electricity supplies improved.
“Since Friday there was no power. We contacted Zesa over the issue but nothing was done. We later heard that some lines were down.
“But today we have just noticed an improvement in the power supplies although we are not sure whether the development was a permanent solution or not.
“If the power supplies continue like this until tomorrow morning then the situation will normalise.
“The universal difference in water supplies becomes evident as from today at midnight,” said Mr Gwindi.
Sources from the Harare Water and Sanitation department said the treatment plant was getting 80 percent of the electricity it required.
“The problem affects the whole town, but some areas are more affected than others.
“We have been receiving insufficient power and Zesa are in a better position to explain the reasons why power is not being adequately supplied,” said the source.
Zesa Holdings spokesperson Mr Fullard Gwasira attributed the problem to a technical fault.
Mr Gwasira said some poles transmitting power to the water plant were vandalised and felled but Zesa had quickly switched on an alternative supply that was 80 percent of normal supply. He said the situation was now under control.
“Poles were tampered with and the lines went down. The poles fell due to vandalism, disturbing the power supplies at Morton Jeffery . . . But now our engineers have sorted out the problem. We have started supplying 100 percent power to Morton Jeffrey,” said Mr Gwasira.