Harare water woes: Council stutters

Leroy Dzenga
Senior Reporter

FOR years, the City of Harare has been struggling with one of the most basic functions laid out in the Urban Councils Act — delivering potable water.

In recent weeks, water supply has depreciated further, causing anguish to residents in the capital city and its dormitory towns.

It is easier to count days with water than those without. They are fewer and when water is available, it is frequently undrinkable.

Both the affluent and those of limited means have been carrying the load of the City of Harare’s inefficiencies.

With seemingly no end in sight to the water woes, President Emmerson Mnangagwa had to intervene through the Presidential Borehole Drilling Scheme. Had it not been for this, many high-density areas in Harare would have been witnessing a calamity of unimaginable proportions.

In Glen View and parts of Chitungwiza, over 1 000 households now have running water in taps, as a result of the President’s programme, expected to extend to areas hard-hit by water shortages.

A survey by The Sunday Mail showed that in parts of Zimre Park, Greendale, Chadcombe, Mainway Meadows, Greencroft, Mabelreign and Waterfalls, residents have since made peace with the fact that they cannot rely on municipal water.

In most of Harare’s high-density suburbs, queues have become a permanent feature at community boreholes.

This is because Harare and dormitory towns reliant on its water sources have a demand of 800 mega-litres, but City of Harare currently has capacity to produce only 295 mega-litres of water per day.

Of this, the city loses 60 percent, which translates to 177 mega-litres. This means only 118 mega-litres are reaching households.

Harare Mayor Jacob Mafume admitted to the long-standing anomaly in his recent State of the City Address where he described water challenges as permanent.

“Unfortunately, not all water produced is accounted for as 60 percent is lost as non-revenue water. Out of the 60 percent non-revenue water, 40 percent is commercial losses, that is theft, faulty meters and stuck water meters. The remaining 20 percent is due to water leakages,” he said.

Apart from arbitrary water cuts, which have become part of life in Harare, the city has introduced water rationing schedules set to subsist until the rainy season.

Besides poor pumping capacity, the city has been facing another challenge, sourcing chemicals to purify water to be fit for domestic use.

Three weeks ago, City of Harare announced they had completely stopped pumping water after running out of water treatment chemicals.

The distress call, though unsurprising, marked a new low that the city is yet to recover from.

Water supply has been at its erratic worst from then to date.

On Tuesday, the City of Harare had to convene a special council meeting to address water shortages.

During the meeting, it was revealed that shortages are emanating from challenges in supply of chemicals.

Director of Water Engineer Victor Musikavanhu gave a candid report to council, saying they are battling to supply water beyond a few days.

“Our dam levels are around 70 to 80 percent. We are producing less than 300 mega-litres of water based on current chemical supplies,” he said.

Engineer Musikavanhu said they have run out of chlorine gas and other key chemicals, as most of their suppliers import key elements of chemicals they produce.

“For the foreseeable future, we still have to remain on suppressed production,” he added.

He claimed the city is waiting for chemicals from China to ease the challenges.

Those involved in water advocacy believe the City of Harare is struggling with a manageable problem.

National Co-ordinator for the Community Water Alliance (CWA) Mr Hardlife Mudzingwa said his organisation presented short-term solutions that were snubbed by City of Harare.

“Production has fallen at Morton Jaffray because they do not have enough chemicals. CWA long indicated that there is a need to address the high purification cost that the city incurs,” said Mr Mudzingwa.

He said water purification costs, which Harare is grappling with, can be solved through reducing water pollution and adopting new technologies.

Water chemicals alone gobble around $40 million per month and City of Harare owes power utility ZESA $1,5 billion, accumulated through water purification processes.

“We suggested that the City of Harare adopts use of sulphur dioxide. It cuts the chemicals used in the purification of water from 10 to three. We even invited a company called Nanotech, which pitched the idea to them, but they didn’t appear to be interested.

“The technology can be installed at Morton Jaffray and will cure City of Harare of its foreign currency headaches. They would no longer need to queue for foreign currency,” said Mr Mudzingwa.

He said the fact that Harare is situated upstream of Lake Chivero, its main water source, does not help matters.

“Water in Harare is polluted before it gets to the lake. By the time it spills it would be in need of heavy purification, which is why we get to about 10 chemicals. We need to manage the ecosystem and catchment so that the water does not need heavy purification,” he said.

Wetlands, which act as filtering sponges, are depleting fast in Harare through unrestrained construction work, and this is affecting the quality of water.

Asked on what additional solutions the city council should consider, Mr Mudzingwa said: “Harare should consider biogas. The solid waste which the city receives daily can be turned into electrical power. The technology is there, we need to start looking into such innovations.”

He further urged the city council to consider adding groundwater into the water supply system, a situation he said could be more sustainable than to have all households drilling boreholes or wells at home.

A 2020 research by academics Tazviona Gambe and Kiriana Dube showed that Harare’s water challenges have added to what is called unpaid care work.

In a research titled “Water Woes in Harare, Zimbabwe: Rethinking the Implications on Gender and Policy”, the two scholars concluded that women in Harare are losing unbilled and productive time fetching water.

“The burden of water woes in Harare is mainly shouldered by women and young girls as compared to men and young boys despite the fact that the latter are sometimes involved in the exercise of fetching water for the household. It is also the burden of females to care for the sick when water shortages cause disease outbreaks,” the two academics noted.

Harare has set its sights to become a world-class city by the year 2025.

One of the main considerations of such a city is access to clean available water.

With the degeneration of water supply, the idea is looking far-fetched.