Zinwa appeals for Govt intervention

Speaking at the commissioning of Bubi-Lupane Dam in Lupane recently, Zinwa board chairman Engineer Daniel Mackenzie Ncube said some consumers had not been paying for water since 2009 when the Government introduced multi-currency.

The former legislator said for the authority to recover its debts, the Government should intervene and force consumers to pay.

“We want to appeal to the Government to come up with a mechanism to force consumers especially bulk water consumers like councils to pay their bills,” said Eng Mackenzie Ncube.

Meanwhile, Eng Mackenzie Ncube has called for the inclusion of water as a basic and priority human right in the new Constitution, saying that would compel the Government to come up with measures to ensure there was commitment in the provision of water to communities.

“The new Constitution should recognise water as a human right with emphasis on availability, quality and accessibility for every citizen. If it is enshrined in the constitution, then the Government would be obligated to provide and protect water sources,” said Eng Mackenzie Ncube.

He said provision of water was a challenge because of issues such as climate change, adding that a lot needed to be done to conserve water sources.

Eng Mackenzie Ncube said the completion of the multi-million Bubi- Lupane Dam was a milestone achievement for Zinwa which now has more than 500 water supply stations and 800 dams countrywide.

“This dam is important not only to Lupane but to the country. Its primary use is for drinking water for the growing town and as you might know, we were using boreholes whose yields were becoming insufficient,” Eng Mackenzie Ncube said.

Speaking at the same occasion the Minister of Water Resources Development and Management Samuel Sipepa Nkomo said the Government was being let down by lack of support from the private sector.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai commissioned the dam and also handed over two schools that had to be relocated to pave way for the construction of the dam.

Construction of the dam, which is situated along Bubi River, a few kilometres south of the Lupane centre started in 2003.

The dam’s capacity is 40,3 million cubic metres and at the moment it has close to 17 million cubic metres of water.

The project was funded by the Government through the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and the Infrastructural Development Bank of Zimbabwe.