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THE emergency borehole drilling programme started last year by the Government in Harare Metropolitan is proceeding steadily and fairly speedily, with for example already eight boreholes now commissioned in just Mbare, and the target of 200 across this urban province now regarded as easily obtainable.
The emergency programme came about through the direct intervention of President Mnangagwa as an extension of the far larger rural programme of 35 000 village boreholes to be drilled over five years, to give every village a safe and convenient water supply.
Urban areas are supposed to have piped and metered water supplies into every home and business as a matter of course, and all of Harare Metropolitan except Epworth Local Board, did have 24-hour supplies seven days a week most of the time when the MDC-dominated councils took over a little over 20 years ago.
This was especially true of Harare City and Chitungwiza Municipality, the largest and third largest urban authorities.
There were odd days when pressure was very low in some areas, but generally speaking urban dwellers in Harare Metropolitan expected as a matter of course, to be able to turn a tap and get water whenever they wanted. Faults would be fixed quickly.
Admittedly people had to pay bills, and water could be cut off if you did not, but there was always a warning before that happened and so people paid.
During extended droughts there was water rationing, but this was based on hosepipe bans and steep surcharges on consumption over set limits, not on switching off supplies.
This happy state of affairs was the direct result of some serious planning by the post-independence Harare City Council under Mayor Tizirai Gwata, and his majority Zanu PF council, with particular emphasis by the engineers in the water unit and the finance people in the city treasury, who by carefully raising water charges very modestly each year had built up a pile of cash and had ensured they could pay for the considerable engineering that was required.
The plan involved using more raw water that had become available, dramatically increasing water treatment, and effectively recycling water to remain within river flows within the range of the city.
When Lake Manyame was built and filled, Harare went from getting half of Lake Chivero water to almost all, everything but the irrigation for a couple of farms, as the lower and larger lake took over all the downstream water rights.
The post independence Government then built Lake Mazvikadei on a Manyame River tributary to take over more of those rights allowing Lake Manyame water to be available for Harare.
After careful calculations, the cheapest option for getting that water to the treatment works was a tunnel and pumps at the Harare end.
The Morton Jaffray Water Works were doubled in size, just like that, to allow for serious growth in the city. At the same time a pair of the most modern sewage treatment plants were commissioned so that clean treated water could be returned to Lake Chivero, boosting raw water supplies. A second pipeline was built from Morton Jaffray and the huge Warren Hills pump station was commissioned to ensure a continuous supply of water to the western and southwestern suburbs where most people lived.
And so in the 1990s there was enough water, more than enough in fact, and new development could take place.
At the same time more of the suburban reservoirs were built, so that new suburbs had water and Mabvuku-Tafara and Glen Lorne, always treated a bit badly, finally had a 24-hour supply.
Of course the planners did not expect their work to be eternal. Regular maintenance would be required, sewage treatment works would need to be expanded and new ones built for Chitungwiza, for the Ruwa catchment containing the growing town of Ruwa and Mabvuku-Tafara, and in time for the far northern suburbs of Harare and Mount Hampden as these were developed.
At some stage extra water would require Kunzvi Dam. But there was enough capacity in hand for the city to do all this work when it was needed.
This was the position when the MDC, now largely transformed into the CCC, took over. They had the same engineers and finance people and the plans were there, and ignored by a council that simply did not understand it had to do anything.
Water treatment diminished, that is less and less water was treated each year as Morton Jaffray was allowed to run down through lack of maintenance.
Even the tunnel to Lake Manyame was allowed to become inactive until some emergency repairs by the Second Republic.
At the moment Morton Jaffray is working at around half capacity only. There is enough raw water, but a badly maintained water works to use it.
Vast swathes of northern and eastern Harare get no water. More swathes consider themselves fortunate getting it once a week for a few hours. Many parts of the rest of Harare and Chitungwiza get very intermittent supplies.
So now we have Harare Metropolitan, which if what was installed was working would have enough water, having to be added to a rural borehole scheme so that at least people have access to clean water, even if they need a few drums and a wheelbarrow or a car to collect it.
Private suppliers charge quite a lot, as do most private borehole owners.
The Second Republic Government under President Mnangagwa first put urban roads on an emergency programme; then it had to put health facilities, in Harare at least, on an emergency programme, then emergency water supplies, and now emergency rubbish collection.
It is daft that easily the richest province in Zimbabwe, and the richest city, should be in intensive care, and the only reason is a city council that can do nothing but wring its hands and say what it inherited and was paid for by ratepayers is “broken”. It cannot fix, cannot maintain and cannot buy new.
That is why we need a new city council.
Those new Government boreholes with their solar pumps are, literally, a lifesaver for the communities they are being drilled in, giving the people clean and safe water at zero cost, but they should never have been needed with even a halfway competent council that could supply water, 24/7 through the taps all houses have.
This is why a new council is now needed, and one can be elected next week.
It will still take that council at least a year to fix a range of basic services, and probably a full term to fix most of which has “broken” in the past 20 plus years, but at least it will be building the city up again, instead of just letting more and more of the infrastructure and services become “broken”.
Online Reporter