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Kwekwe City Council is now feeling the burden of supplying water to Redcliff Town and are pushing to wean off the steel manufacturing town.Councillor Matenda Madzoke, the Kwekwe mayor, said his council has already approached government seeking permission to wean off Redcliff and have it pump its own water.
He said the two local authorities recently met and deliberated over the issue.
Said Clr Madzoke: “We have met and agreed with Redcliff that it was no longer feasible for Kwekwe to continue supplying water to Redcliff. The situation has been so straining to Kwekwe City and we have since approached government and presented our position.”
He added: “We had a fruitful meeting about two weeks ago with the deputy minister of Environment, Water and Climate, Cde Simon Musanhu and they are willing to assist in that regard. We have been advised to also write to the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing and they are also assisting us.”
The Kwekwe mayor said his council was actually finding it difficult and “straining” to continue pumping treated water to the satellite town, hence the decision to wean it off.
He said the situation was being worsened by a booming population in both towns. Clr Madzoke said Kwekwe City Council was saddled with an $81,000 debt owed to the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) in unpaid raw water bills.
“On the other hand, we (Kwekwe city) are owed over $12 million by Redcliff as they are struggling to service their treated water bill. The situation is just complex and this is why we want the two local authorities to become independent of each other in the area of water supplies,” he said.
Redcliff Town Clerk, Elizabeth Gwetipedza said she was in a meeting when Chronicle contacted her. Kwekwe City Council and Redcliff Town spent four days without water last week after Zinwa disconnected water supplies to Kwekwe over the $81,000 debt.
Water was only restored after Kwekwe City Council officials came up with a payment plan.
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