Harare mayor Muchadeyi Masunda yesterday said it might take at least three years for the capital city’s residents to get normal water supplies.
Masunda told NewsDay yesterday Harare needed 1 200 megalitres of water per day in winter and 1 400 megalitres per day in summer but was only able to supply 620 megalitres.
He said completion of the Kunzvi Dam and connection of a pipe-link to Mazowe Dam would go a long way in alleviating the city’s water woes.
He blamed government and successive administrations for delaying implementation of the Kunzvi Dam project and their failure to maintain and expand the infrastructure Zimbabwe inherited from the pre-independence era in sync with Harare’s growing population.
“We need $539 million to get Kunzvi Dam on, and it might take the first part of three years to supply the water. The situation is serious, very serious,” Masunda said.
“The raw water is there, but what is not there is the capacity to treat it at Morton Jaffray. Kunzvi Dam will yield 250 megalitres which is a drop in the ocean,” he said.
Masunda said it was unfortunate council inherited a “messy situation” from the commission led by Sekesai Makwavarara.
“People should not throw bricks because I will tell you I didn’t start these things. I will tell you I didn’t start these things and ask where you were when jokers like Makwavarara were allowed into town house,” he said.
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Recently, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s office held a water summit in the city to try and find solutions to the crisis and results were yet to be seen on the ground. The water shortages led to a severe typhoid outbreak early this year although council said the disease was now under control.
