LOCAL Government permanent secretary, George Mlilo, has pleaded with the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) to immediately and unconditionally restore water supplies to Beitbridge town to avoid a humanitarian crisis.
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Mlilo made the remarks following a close-door meeting with Beitbridge Town Council officials at the weekend after Zinwa scaled down water supplies since March, citing an unpaid water bill of $12 million.
He urged Zinwa and the local authority to organise a separate meeting to discuss payment terms for the outstanding debt.
“Whose money is it? It is government money and you cannot put it before the lives of people, it’s not proper, it is silly,” Mlilo said on Friday.
Since March this year, Zinwa introduced stringent measures, including installation of a prepaid bulk water meter at its Beitbridge plant, to force the local authority to pay its bills.
This has resulted in acute water shortages that have affected Beitbridge District Hospital, Beitbridge Border Post and the entire town of 60 000 people.
“People are using bush toilets and we all know what that means in terms of diseases. Beitbridge has been moved to the dark ages,” an environmental health technician with a non-governmental organisation, said.
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Mlilo said while Zinwa was under another department, he would “deliver” facts to higher authorities in government for a positive decision to be made.
“We must be realistic in our approach because we risk becoming too commercial at the expense of the same people who are the government,” he said.
Mlilo could not be drawn into saying whether Beitbridge would be given the autonomy to run its water affairs, although his statements pointed to that.
Beitbridge, Gwanda and Victoria Falls have approached the government seeking to take over management and distribution of water from Zinwa.
Other local authorities in Mashonaland, Manicaland and Masvingo provinces are managing their own affairs.
Recently, Mlilo supported Gwanda’s bid to take over its water services from Zinwa.
Beitbridge town secretary, Loud Ramagkapola, said water charges by Zinwa are not uniform and greater Beitbridge was billed commercially.
“Some towns drawing water from a long distance pay 46 cents per cubic metre, but in Beitbridge it’s 50 cents for the area around the hospital, rank border for the first 2 350 cubic metres, thereafter, 92 cents,” he said.
“That is too much, remember we are not industrialised, we are a transit town handling populations from other parts of the country,” he said.
Zinwa spokesperson, Marjorie Munyonga yesterday said: “Please send an e-mail and I will respond in writing, it might not be possible today but next week.”
