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Zesa blamed for city water woes

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Kadoma Mayor Peter Matambo says the town is perennially experiencing water problems owing to incessant power blackouts by the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa), which is also failing to complete construction of a dedicated 24-hour power line to the main waterworks. The town and Zesa’s transmission arm, Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission Distribution Company, early last year […]

Kadoma Mayor Peter Matambo says the town is perennially experiencing water problems owing to incessant power blackouts by the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa), which is also failing to complete construction of a dedicated 24-hour power line to the main waterworks.

The town and Zesa’s transmission arm, Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission Distribution Company, early last year struck a deal which was to see the setting-up of an uninterrupted power supply feeder to the Blue Ranges and Claw Dam Shore Pump main waterworks to ensure constant water supply to the city. The project would cost council $700 000.

Matambo said: “The water problems that continue to affect residents are partly because Zesa is delaying completion of the power line project to our main waterworks. All logistics to ensure the job is done were put in place, but Zesa is taking its time, but what they don’t understand is that this is negatively affecting our ability to supply constant clean water to residents and ratepayers.”

Areas such as Munhumutapa and Rimuka’s ward 8 rarely got adequate water, Matambo said. The water supply challenges have also been attributed to the ageing and vandalised water reticulation system.

Completion of construction work by Zesa scheduled for last August is way off the mark, dashing hopes of the town’s ability to supply the installed 40 000 cubic metres of water daily.

Matambo said the council would engage Zesa management to map a way forward in a bid to expedite completion of the project.

Kadoma was the epicentre of the 2008 cholera outbreak due to water shortages, prompting development partners such as GIZ, French Red Cross, Practical Action and Oxfam to intervene with various projects to improve the water situation, among them drilling of boreholes.