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Innocent Ruwende Municipal Reporter
Harare City Council is losing millions of dollars to companies and individuals drawing water for free from fire hydrants and horses as well as illegal connections, it has emerged.
This comes amid revelations that council is struggling to settle a $5,5 million water chemical bill.
Currently, the city is only collecting $350 000 monthly from residents in water bills against a target of $1,4 million.
A recent audit by Harare Water showed that more than 50 percent of properties in the Central Business District had their water disconnected.
They were later reconnected illegally by council employees.
The audit revealed that companies like Arenel Biscuits, who consume up to 2 000 cubic meters of water, were being charged $8 monthly estimates, which is far below domestic use.
Another company Quality Meat Market illegally connected a water meter to a fire hydrant and their water connection point is covered with soil hence verification of the legally installed water meter could not be seen.
The company use a lot of water considering their detergents making business but the water consumption estimates charged are as low as $16 monthly.
At least 288 residents of Waneka Flats and George Stark in Mbare have not been paying water for more than five years.
Speaking after a tour of some of the areas, Engineer Simon Muserere said council will estimate and penalise companies found to be on the wrong side of the law.
“We are now investigating the cases. There is a possibility that some of our employees may be involved in the illegal connections. We are also moving around replacing stuck water meters.
“We realised that more than 50 percent of properties in the CBD had their water supplies disconnected for non-payment but surprisingly all of them have water. We want to investigate the cases and find out who reconnected the water supplies,” he said.
Eng Muserere said council was also targeting the major 100 water consumers for meter replacement.
He urged water consumers with illegal connections to come forward and report to council saying they will be treated differently.
Harare City Council is broke and its workers have gone for months without getting their salaries.
Observers have blamed the situation on mismanagement and corruption by management.
Council has resorted to selling land to generate the much needed revenue with the city fathers failing to come up with solutions to problems currently faced by council.
Online Reporter