Water shortage costly on firms

amounting to thousands of United States dollars.
Lake Harvest – a diversified fishing and breeding concern lost over 20 tonnes of fish meant for export and the local market in a week. The town ran dry after a water pump broke down resulting in wide spread water problems.
The water shortages saw residents of Nyamhunga, Batonga and Baobab Ridge among others resorting to fetching water from the Lake Kariba. By last Tuesday, Lake Harvest which breeds and processes fish had lost 20 tonnes of fish as it needs a constant supply of treated water to process fish ready for packaging.
“There is a short time between the catching of fish and processing in the factory which needs a lot of water if the required standards are to be met,” said a source who preferred anonymity for professional reasons.
Efforts to get a comment from the manager only known as Mr Munatsirei were fruitless.
The figure is reportedly higher.
Kariba mayor Mr Nicholas Hwindiri said the seal on the submersible water pump at the Breeze Water Point broke down two weeks ago causing the pump to seize.
“The pump seized on Friday last week and efforts to immediately deal with the problem were dented when we failed to get the part needed locally,” he said.
The council only managed to get a spare part from Harare last week on Sunday. The spare part did not, however, match the one that had broken down and all other effort to get the seal locally were fruitless and they had to order from South Africa.
However, the part was held by Zimra over payment of duty when it finally arrived on Tuesday.
“In the meantime our engineers and those from the local companies were working flat out to rectify the problem,” he said.
This resulted in the engineers finally managing to improvise on the seal on Thursday night resulting in council managing to start pumping water to the reservoirs. Mr Hwindiri also confirmed the loss at Lake Harvest saying he had been informed by management at the company as they sought audience with council in search of a solution.
“They indicated that they suffered heavy losses owing to the water problems that we encountered from Friday last week.
“However, we are happy to say that the situation will improve from today (Friday),” he said.
Residents risked life and limp as they ventured into the crocodile and wildlife infested Lake Kariba in search of water to drink and use for household chores.
A small boy escaped death by a whisker after he was attacked by a crocodile while fetching water from the lake.
“The water is relatively cleaner at least 20 metres into the Lake because there is less wave activity which disturb the water making it unsuitable to drink,” said Jeremy Kachuta, a resident.
District Medical Officer Dr Godwin Muza said no reports of diarrhoea cases other related diseases over the period.
However, the situation led to the closure of Nyamhunga and Nyanhewe Primary Schools after water bowsers could not provide adequate water.