Harare poised to clinch water deal

Herald Reporter
Harare City Council will sign a joint venture deal with a local company to supply potable water drawn from Gletwyn dam to northern suburbs.

Northern suburbs, most of which have been receiving erratic water supplies like Glen Lorne, Glenwood and Shawasha Hills, would be expected to start receiving regular water supplies once the agreement is operationalised.

According to the recent Environmental Management Committee minutes, council wants acting town clerk Mrs Josephine Ncube to negotiate a Memorandum of Agreement with Struxure Investments (Pvt) Ltd to allow for project implementation and offtake agreements which are required.

“The committee had before it a report (March 1, 2017) by the director of Harare Water (Eng Hosiah Chisango) on the feasibility study report for the Gletwyn Dam Water Treatment Works,” read the minutes.

“He reported that the City of Harare had entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with Struxure Investments (Pvt) Ltd on December 23, 2015 for a feasibility study to be conducted to determine the possibility of supplying water from Gletwyn Dam to augment supplies to Harare.”

Eng Chisango told councillors that Struxure Investments had carried out the feasibility study in January this year, indicating a potential water supply of 1 458 cubic metres per day, capable of supplying 2 000 households.

The committee noted that the city would utilise this capacity upon entering into favourable agreements with Struxure Investments and that the parties now need to proceed and negotiate the implementation modalities for the project.

The project would be implemented by the developer, with no financial obligations from council.

According to the deal, the project is expected to draw water from the dam to a treatment plant which will be installed at the dam and then water pumped into the Grange Reservoir.

Struxure will provide a pump house and water treatment plant while council offers the existing water distribution infrastructure and land for the construction of the water treatment plant.

The parties would share profits from water sales based on capital contributions by each party to the deal.