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travel outside the country without Government sanction.
Mr Masunda confirmed he travelled without authority.
“I am still going as my travel and billeting expenses were covered already by the World Water Forum and United Cities and Local Government.
“I will forgo the city council’s contribution towards the usual per diem allowances plus the upgrade from the economy to business class for the long overhaul flight,” he said.
However, Harare Water director Engineer Christopher Zvobgo did not travel as he needed Government permission.
The two were expected to lobby for water funding to augment Government efforts to raise funding for Kunzvi, Musami and Mazowe Dams to alleviate water shortages.
Presently only 40 percent of Harare residents have access to safe drinking water everyday while 30 percent have access to safe water for three to five days a week.
Twenty percent enjoy water availability for between one and two days while 10 percent rely on boreholes and unprotected wells.
Harare has over 2,5 million residents but supplies water to over four million people including those in Chitungwiza, Ruwa, Epworth and Norton.
Mr Masunda blamed the failure to get Cabinet authority on city officials who did not do a thorough job.
“A cursory perusal of the supporting documentation, which was generated by our own team at Town House as justification for the attendance by Eng Christopher Magwenzi Zvobgo and myself at the 6th World Water Forum leaves me with the inescapable conclusion that supplementary information ought to have been furnished,” he said.
Mr Masunda is today expected to deliver a paper entitled “Management of Water in Metropolises: An Opportunity for Better Local Governance” — The Case of City of Harare, Zimbabwe.
Recently Water Resources Development and Management Minister Sipepa Nkomo warned that no one else should talk about water except himself.
He was addressing Harare City officials and councillors during a strategic planning meeting at a city lodge.
He said he was the principal on water issues and everyone else worked for him.
Mr Masunda decried the absence of Eng Zvobgo at the world water forum.
“Regrettably, Eng Zvobgo, the hands on director of Harare Water will no longer be able to accompany and support me at a number of meetings, which have been teed-up with some of the traditional financiers of water infrastructure projects.
“Nevertheless, I will fly the flags of both Harare and Zimbabwe high . . . as we need more hands on deck to address the critical issue of supplying our stakeholders with potable water,” he said.
In 2008 Harare was hit by a cholera outbreak that claimed 400 lives in the capital.
More than 100 000 cases of cholera were recorded.
At the moment the city is besieged with a typhoid outbreak with over 2 800 suspected cases reported as of February 16. Sixteen cases were confirmed as typhoid with two recorded deaths.
Online Reporter