Online Reporter
Herald Reporter
WATER supply dominated discussions at a Ward 9 residents’ feedback meeting held at Greendale Sports Club on Thursday, with the City of Harare assuring residents that ongoing water infrastructure rehabilitation works under its partnership with Helcraw Water will significantly improve water delivery across the capital.
The meeting, convened by Ward 9 Councillor Prince Mutebuka, brought together residents, City of Harare management, heads of departments, district officials, councillors and representatives of residents’ associations to assess service delivery and receive community feedback.
While residents welcomed improvements in refuse collection and road maintenance, they urged the local authority to prioritise the resolution of persistent water shortages affecting Greendale and neighbouring suburbs.
Council officials said the ongoing rehabilitation of water infrastructure is expected to enhance the reliability of water supplies and improve service delivery once the projects are completed.
“We cannot come here and pretend that everything is perfect,” they said.
“We are here to account to residents by explaining what has been achieved, what has not been achieved and, most importantly, how we intend to resolve the outstanding challenges.”
He urged council departments to ensure that complaints raised during the meeting receive urgent attention.
“When we return for the next feedback meeting, residents should not be raising the same complaints. That is how we measure progress and improve confidence in council.”
Councillor Mutebuka said many of Harare’s service delivery challenges stemmed from ageing infrastructure that was designed decades ago for a much smaller population.
“When much of this infrastructure was constructed, Harare was serving a fraction of today’s population. The city is now home to more than 2,5 million people, placing enormous pressure on ageing water and sewer systems that require comprehensive rehabilitation,” he said.
He said council had introduced several governance and financial reforms to strengthen service delivery, including the recent adoption of a modern Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system that will improve revenue management, billing, asset management and financial accountability.
The councillor also highlighted progress being made through public-private partnerships, saying the Geo Pomona Waste Management partnership had transformed refuse collection across many suburbs.
“We have seen significant improvements in refuse collection and illegal dumpsites are steadily disappearing,” he said.
“Where illegal dumping still occurs, residents should continue reporting it so that swift action can be taken.”
Turning to water supply, Councillor Mutebuka said the City of Harare’s strategic partnership with Helcraw Water represented one of the biggest infrastructure rehabilitation programmes undertaken by the local authority in recent years.
The partnership covers the installation of smart prepaid water meters, rehabilitation of Harare’s ageing water distribution network and the upgrading of Morton Jaffray Water Treatment Works to improve water production and distribution across Greater Harare.
The programme also seeks to reduce non-revenue water, improve billing efficiency, replace obsolete asbestos cement pipelines with modern PVC pipes and expand water coverage to more households.
The rehabilitation programme targets the replacement of about 500 kilometres of ageing water pipelines, installation of up to 650 000 smart prepaid water meters across Harare and surrounding towns, increasing water production at Morton Jaffray from an average of 350 megalitres per day to 520 megalitres per day, while improving revenue collection and reducing water losses through leak detection and digital monitoring.
Speaking during the meeting, Chairperson of the Finance and Development Committee, Ward 45 Councillor Jubilation Shoko, said the city’s migration to the Business IQ (BIQ) billing platform would strengthen financial management and improve customer service.
“The BIQ billing platform is a key component of council’s digital transformation programme. It will improve billing accuracy, reduce disputes, strengthen revenue collection and enable residents to access more efficient and transparent municipal services,” said Councillor Shoko.
He said improved revenue collection would enable council to invest more resources into rehabilitating critical infrastructure and enhancing service delivery.
Principal Programmes Monitoring and Evaluation Officer Mr Jackson Murimi said the feedback meeting formed part of council’s performance monitoring framework.
“Monitoring and evaluation allows council to measure progress against commitments made to residents. Every concern raised today will be tracked, monitored and evaluated to ensure corrective action is taken and service delivery continues to improve,” he said.
Speaking after the meeting, Councillor Mutebuka said residents had acknowledged progress in several areas while emphasising that water remained the city’s biggest priority.
“Residents appreciated the improvements in refuse collection and road maintenance, but they rightly expect greater progress on water,” he said
“Through the Helcraw Water partnership, we are seeing pipeline replacement, smart metering and rehabilitation works that we believe will substantially improve water delivery to Ward 9 and the rest of Harare.”
He said the continued rehabilitation of water infrastructure, coupled with digital transformation and stronger financial systems, would position the City of Harare to deliver more efficient and sustainable municipal services to residents.
