Government yesterday said there was no immediate solution to the perennial water challenges hitting Harare and other cities due to shortages of funds.
In an interview with NewsDay yesterday, Water Resources minister Samuel Sipepa Nkomo said he was disturbed by the current water supply situation in Harare but there was little he could do as the government has no money.
“I am not happy, I will only be happy when people get water, government is addressing some of these things and they can’t be addressed overnight. The fiscal space is not conducive and there is no money. I am in government and I understand our problem as government,” he said.
Nkomo said the government was trying to seal a Chinese deal for the Kunzvi Dam project that has been in the pipeline for decades.
This comes at a time most suburbs in Harare have been dry raising fears of water-borne diseases reminiscent of the 2008 cholera outbreak and the typhoid scourge early this year.
Since last week, NewsDay has been inundated with calls from residents in different suburbs, complaining of the water shortages and blaming the local authority for letting them down.
Mayor Muchadeyi Masunda told NewsDay yesterday that the water challenges needed everyone to come up with a solution as it was getting out of hand.
Masunda said residents and institutions must be responsible in using the available “precious liquid” saying University of Zimbabwe alone owed the city $6 million.
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“It’s everybody’s problem. We are not producing anywhere near where we should be. On a good day, we produce 620 megalitres and what we have to refrain from is the blame game,” he said.
