Harare Losing 60% Of Its Water
According to the mayor of Harare, the city is currently under immense pressure to provide water to its residents as the city is is busy losing close to 60% of it’s treated water thanks to old and broken distribution networks.
Bernard Manyenyeni, mayor of Harare, has announced that the city is losing more than half of its treated water because of the distribution networks that, according to him, is completely dilapidated.
It seems that the system is struggling to keep up with intense demand for treated water, as it was designed to only handle the needs of roughly 300 000 residents, yet it has had to distribute water to close more than 3 million residents.
Mayenyeni said that while he commends the Water Department’s effort to try and fix the problems (which include broken pipes and the likes) he also said that something needs to be dine urgently about the 60% of treated water being lost:
“…I commend the Harare Water Department for efforts to fix the water bursts but there is need to maintain timing and planning balance between digging and fixing…We need to improve on the monitoring of the dug-up areas so that they cease to be a danger to the public,” he said.
Harare currently spends around $3 million monthly on the purchase of water treatment chemicals alone. This is because the raw water sources around the area are heavily populated and thus can not be used as is.
Manyenyeni also addressed this problem:
“…The most worrying submission I am making to stakeholders is the level of pollution of our raw water source, Lake Chivero. It has become necessary to stop pumping water because of the very poor quality of intake water,” he said.
However, there might be hope for water-scarce Harare. The city is currently a part of a rehabilitation process that will see the upgrading of the city’s water and sewerage infrastructure. This is being done as a collaboration project by Zimbabwe Multi-Donor Trust Fund (Zimfund) Grant, the China Exim Bank Loan Facility and the city’s own resources.
