Zinwa owed US$98m

rural district councils.
Zinwa chief executive officer Engineer Albert Muyambo disclosed the dire situation that the water authority is facing in the face of the withdrawal by Unicef from providing water treatment chemicals.
The withdrawal of the support spells danger to residents of growth points and rural service centres who rely on Zinwa water.
Eng Muyambo said if the debtors pay up, Zinwa will be able to buy its own water treatment chemicals.
He said problems at Zinwa were compounded by demands by the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority that it wants value-added tax to be paid against the billed amounts instead of collected revenue.
On average, Zinwa bills up to US$4 million every month, but collections average US$2,5 million.
Its salary bill is US$1,5 million, implying that generally US$1 million is available to run daily operations.
But Zinwa says that amount is wiped out by VAT.
If, for instance, Zinwa bills US$4 million, VAT on the amount would be US$600 000, which Zinwa must pay, whether or not the billed amount has been paid in full.
“We are in a catch-22 situation where we are expected to pay VAT on amounts we have not received,” said Eng Muyambo.
He said Zinwa was hamstrung by Government policy barring disconnection of water supplies on domestic consumers to enforce payment.
“Unicef pulled out in February and since then we have not had capacity to procure adequate water treatment chemicals,” he said.