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Marvelous Moyo Gwanda Correspondent
GWANDA Municipality has no capacity to meet the monthly financial demands being made by the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) for treated water as the local authority is financially constrained, the town’s mayor has said.
Zinwa has again started rationing water supply to Gwanda Town as the water utility demands more payments from the municipality. Zinwa is said to have reduced water pumping hours from 16 to eight, a move said to be an attempt to put pressure on Gwanda municipality.
The move comes a month after another impasse between Zinwa and the municipality saw reduced water supplies to the town, a development that threatened the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Polytechnic and other institutions with closure due to acute water shortage.
Now the town’s residents are experiencing water problems with some having gone for at least two days without the commodity.
In an interview, Gwanda Town Mayor Councillor Knowledge Ndlovu said the water authority was demanding a monthly payment of $75,000, but the local authourity was not in a position to pay that.
Residents owe the municipality over $1 million for water charges while the municipality owes Zinwa about $5 million.
The mayor said the only solution for the impasse is for Zinwa to hand over the water treatment plant to the town so that it administers all water issues.
“What Zinwa is demanding is just impossible. We cannot afford to raise that kind of money every month. We have only been managing to pay about $20,000 every month and that is what we can afford.
“We have a challenge because some residents are not paying their water bills and for us to make any water disconnections, we need to acquire a court order, which is a process and some residents are taking advantage of that,” said Clr Ndlovu.
He said the only solution to the water problems facing the town was for Zinwa to hand over the water treatment plant to council.
“They should let us run the treatment plant for all these problems to come to an end. We have the capacity to run the plant,” said Clr Ndlovu.
Zinwa sells treated water to the municipality which in turn sells water to the residents. As a result Gwanda water is expensive as compared to other towns whose local authorities are responsible for administering their own water treatment plants.
However, the municipality’s plans to roll out a prepaid water system programme that would see residents paying for water before consumption.
No comment could be obtained from Zinwa as the acting Umzingwane catchment manager Stanley Nazombe was said to be in Harare.
Zinwa was ordered on March 6, 2014, by the court not to disturb the system of water supply in Gwanda.
derick.khumalo