WE’VE ENOUGH WATER FOR TWO YEARS: MAYOR MAFUME

Talent Gore

HARARE Mayor Jacob Mafume has assured residents of adequate water supplies over the next 24 months as its supply dams are 96 and 87 percent full.

Speaking during a tour of Morton Jaffrey yesterday, Mayor Mafume said there was enough water in their main supply dams.

“The irony of the situation is such that according to the ZINWA statistics, Lake Chivero is at 96 percent full and Lake Manyame is at 87 percent full,” he said.

“That is a lot of water for August and September because those are our driest months, one would have expected those dam levels to be lower than that at this time of the year because we are waiting for the rains.

“What that means is that even if the rains come in abundance they will only leave us in terms of prints at Works Water but for Lake Chivero and Lake Manyame those dams will quickly fill up and flow depending on the abundance of rain.”

Mayor Mafume said they have a 24-month supply of raw water but want to get to an abstraction rate of 560 megalitres per day, which requires some work to be done on Morton Jaffray Water Works.

“Some of the pumps, the filters, need to be constantly repaired, then we need to install pumps that draw water from the tunnel that links Lake Manyame at an increased rate.

“We have, accordingly, paid the divers, who have billed us US$89 000, to do the work of blocking the water and then installing the first pump.

“There should be four pumps that need to be installed in total. The work of installing this pump should take us the whole of September. And, after that, we then expect the water to increase, the water that we deliver to the residents.”

Mayor Mafume said they are working on making sure they accelerate the issue of water treatment chemicals.

“We are talking to our supplier, our main supplier is Chemplex and we have ensured that they get a bit of funding. We are working towards clearing the debt with the assistance of the Government,” he said.

“We paid US$500 000 during the SADC summit, and we are hoping to pay US$2,5 million from the Government as well to Chemplex.”