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Daring man diverts water from Zinwa main pipeline

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A DARING Macheke man, who allegedly diverted water from the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) main pipeline converting it to his personal use, on Wednesday appeared before Marondera magistrate Arnold Maburo facing charges of prejudicing the parastatal of $9 000.

A DARING Macheke man, who allegedly diverted water from the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) main pipeline converting it to his personal use, on Wednesday appeared before Marondera magistrate Arnold Maburo facing charges of prejudicing the parastatal of $9 000.

BY JAIROS SAUNYAMA

Isaac Sithole (age not given) of 727 Macheke Industrial Site pleaded not guilty of prejudicing the water body of about $9 000 after diverting water from the main pipeline for more than nine months.

He will be back in court today (Monday) for judgment.

According to court papers, between December 2015 and November 9, 2016, Zinwa Macheke experienced unexplained water shortages despite the pipeline having no leakages.

On November 8 last year, a Zinwa employee, Tapera Gasera, who works as bay leaf operator opened the pump to draw water from Macheke Dam to the water purification plant, but to his surprise no water was reaching the plant.

The following day at around 5am, another employee of Zinwa, Bruce Mutasa, who works at the water purification plant reported to his superior Isaac Mandure about the problem after noticing the anomaly.

Mandure then teamed up with Mutasa and Gasera to make an inspection of the pipeline to appreciate what the problem was. This is when the trio discovered a scour valve, which was unlocked and connected to a polythene pipe which diverted water from main water pipeline to a man-made storage water work.

Mandure and Gasera then left Mutasa behind while they proceeded to make a police report. While at the scene Mutasa saw the suspect proceeding to the valve while holding a spanner that he allegedly used to lock and unlock the scour valve. Mutasa apprehended the suspect while locking the valve and recovered a 15,3mx60mm polythene pipe, another measuring 3,6mx50mm, aluminium and asbestos pieces of pipes measuring 1,44m.

Investigations carried out revealed that Zinwa was prejudiced of 37 032 cubic metres of water worth $8887,68. Emmanuel Dera prosecuted.