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Blessings Chidakwa-Municipal Reporter
Harare City Council has restored water supply to Norton Town Council after the latter offered $1 million weekly payments to offset its debt of around $177 million.
The ballooning debt saw Norton’s water supply being cut off for more than a week, leaving more than 100 000 residents at the risk of contracting diarrhoeal diseases.
However, the two parties are failing to agree on the debt with Norton insisting it is less than $136 million.
Harare City Council spokesperson Mr Michael Chideme said they had agreed to reconnect water supplies after negotiations.
“They have a proposal to pay $1 million every week. This means it will take 177 weeks to retire the debt. Today (yesterday) we temporarily opened water for them for 24 hours to allow for further negotiations,” he said. Norton Town Secretary Mr Kizito Muhomba confirmed that the water supply was restored after they settled for a payment plan.
“As at the end of April, we owed Harare $117 million. The amount of water as per meter reading for May is approximately $19 million, but we are yet to receive an official statement,” he said.
Norton receives five megalitres of water daily against its demand of 25 megalitres.
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