Minister warns corrupt councils

Patrick Chitumba

Local authorites involved in shoddy deals involving taxpayers’ money will be brought to book as the Second Republic has no room for incompetency and corrupt activities, Midlands Provincial Affairs and Devolution Minister Owen Ncube warned this week.

He made the remarks during a familiarisation tour of Gwenhoro water works in Gweru.

The city is facing severe water shortages, a development that has largely been attributed to incompetence by the opposition-led Gweru City Council.

The local authority is supposed to pump 66 to 80 megalitres of water per day but it is only able to pump 32 to 40 megalitres per day resulting in water shortages across the city.

Gweru City Council is using one water pump instead of the six pumps, which were procured in 2019 through devolution funds.

For ages now, the local authority has been battling to address the city’s perennial water woes that have often seen suburbs in high-lying areas such as Ridgemont, Mkoba 1, 3, 14, 15, 19, and 20 going for months with dry taps.

Some residents, particularly in the city’s low-density suburbs, have since devised alternatives such as drilling boreholes and resorting to bottled water.

The infrastructure for piped water in Gweru was developed in the 1950s and designed for a population of about 300 000 people.

The city’s perennial water crisis is the result of the city’s obsolete water infrastructure and ballooning population among other factors.

Gweru has about 1,2 million people, more than half of whom have no access to clean water and are at risk of water-borne diseases such as cholera and typhoid.

The water crisis in Gweru has also affected people’s rights to water and sanitation.

The opposition-led local authority recently came under scrutiny for misplaced priorities after procuring top-of-the-range vehicles for its executives at a time when service delivery has reached an all-time low.

In 2019, the Government had to provide funding for the procurement of six low-lift pumps, but the lack of a feasibility study by the local authority in installing the pumps resulted in most motors at the Gwenhoro water pump station being burned out and beyond repair.

As if that is not enough, some council employees stand accused of procuring the wrong transformer which could not be installed at the pump station as it lacked the required specifications for the task at hand.

This emerged during Minister Ncube’s tour of Gwenhoro water works.

Gweru City Council’s water engineer, Masauso Store told the Minister that the local authority had acquired six water pumps, but only one is functioning after the others were damaged.

“We had acquired six pumps which could give us a minimum of 66 megalitres of water at any given time against the city requirement of 120 megalitres. However, of these pumps, only one is fully functional as all the others got burned out,” he said.

“We are in the process of replacing the old pumps.”

Eng Store said the city engineers had placed variable speed drive starters instead of soft starters which caused the motors in the pumps to burn.

He said on the issue of a transformer, the local authority bought the wrong transformer which fell short of the ZETDC requirements.

In response, Minister Ncube retorted: “Gweru has been facing water challenges for a long time. We want an action-oriented approach to service delivery. Those involved in shoddy deals involving taxpayers’ money must be brought to book as the Second Republic has no room for incompetency and corrupt activities.”

Minister Ncube said Gweru should aim to reach the smart city status being initiated by the Government, with strict compliance to quality being guaranteed.

He said in 2019, the local authority received over US$450 000 from the Government to purchase six water pumps to improve water pumping capacity.

“In 2019, His Excellency, the President through the Ministry of Finance released US$455 000 advance devolution funds to the local authority to address the issue of old water infrastructure. l am, however, concerned that water shortages are still haunting residents,” said Minister Ncube.

“I am rather disappointed that there is no improvement in terms of addressing water challenges. We need urgent intervention in the water problems. I am told you have been buying the wrong equipment which is now costing residents, and I want to make it clear that all those responsible must be taken to task.”

Gweru mayor Councillor Martin Chivhoko said there was some misinformation they were receiving from council employees in trying to cover their shortcomings at the waterworks.

“Coming to this side has also helped us open our eyes to the situation on the ground. Sometimes we are misinformed that load shedding is creating problems with regards to the supply of water to the suburbs and yet there are no pumps here. We need to find a solution to the water problems in the city,” he said.

Minister Ncube directed Cllr Chivhoko and council management to address the city water issues as a matter of urgency.

“Outstanding plans of action must be time framed and all responsible members must be held accountable for failure to deliver. Perennial water shortages should be a thing of the past as the country seeks to achieve an upper-middle-income society by 2030,” he said.

“As a people-centered Government, led by a listening President and guided by servant leadership, we are back here again on instruction to assist the council establish a clear plan to restore consistent water supply to the people of Gweru.”

Minister Moyo said urgent interventions are required to restore water supply to over 66 megalitres per day.