adminTHE Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) is owed over $115 million by various customers for water rights and supplies, the water authority’s acting board chairperson, Mrs Duduzile Shinya, revealed.
Mrs Shinya made the revelation recently during the commissioning of Mtshabezi pipeline in Matabeleland South province.
She said the situation had seen Zinwa facing serious cash flow problems which had resulted in the authority struggling to meet its statutory obligations.
“One of the major reasons why Zinwa faces severe funding challenges is due to non-payment for water by various clients across the country. As we speak Zinwa is owed in excess of $115 million in unpaid water bills by various consumers such as Government departments, local authorities, irrigators, mines, agricultural estates and individuals. This situation has seen Zinwa failing to meet its statutory obligations, maintain and rehabilitate water infrastructure as well as replacing ageing equipment,” she said.
Despite Zinwa writing off debts to the tune of US$55 million in August 2013 following a Government directive the move has not helped inspire the authority’s debtors to pay up. In January this year, Zinwa was owed about $103 million but the amount has gone up by about $12 million over a period of nine months due to continued non-payment by the authority’s customers.
Among Zinwa’s major defaulters are Government departments, which in January owed the authority about $20 million.
Government department’s indebtedness ranked third, trailing irrigators whose debt stood at $37 million and local authorities, at $24 million. Other debtors include mining companies who owed $3 million, domestic consumers owing $6 million and parastatals whose debt stood at $5 million at the beginning of the year. Churches, business, schools and industry, accounted for a debt of about $8 million.
Mrs Shinya appealed to Government to assist Zinwa collect debts from its owing customers, saying the non-payment for water was militating against efforts to ensure equitable access to water by everyone.
“We are therefore appealing to Government to help us collect the much needed revenue especially from the local authorities, some of whose debts now run into several millions of dollars.
“We appeal to Government to help Zinwa and local authorities to find common ground, reach common understanding on how best we can work together and ensure the sustainability of service to our ultimate principals who are the people of Zimbabwe,” she said.
Mrs Shinya said the prevailing untenable relations between Zinwa and some local authorities only served to disadvantage residents, who will go without water if their local authorities are cut off.
“In the same vein we are also appealing to irrigators, individuals, estates and mines owing Zinwa to take practical steps towards retiring their debts as that is the only way service provision can be sustained,” she said.
Last year the Ministry of Environment Water and Climate ordered Zinwa to cut off water supplies to non-paying customers, claiming they were prioritising trivial issues instead of paying essential bills. One of the local authorities which has regularly been at logger heads with Zinwa over non-payment for water is Kwekwe City Council, which has had its water supply cut off on numerous occasions.
Local authorities across the country are saddled with debts owed by residents, industry and Government departments, and have used their predicament as justification for failing to pay Zinwa. Zinwa is a wholly Government-owned entity tasked with managing the country’s water resources.
The authority was created through the Zinwa Act as part of government’s efforts to reform the country’s water sector.
Online Reporter