Kwekwe City Council has cut water supplies to Redcliff town over an $8 million water debt, exposing the population of over 9 000 to a potential health disaster.
Redcliff mayor Joseph Matewa told NewsDay on Monday that the town had been without water for the past 10 days after Kwekwe, which supplies water through Ziscosteel, discontinued supplies over the unpaid debt.
“We face a serious threat following water disconnections by Kwekwe who are rightly demanding that the water bill should be settled.
“The problem is Ziscosteel are the ones who owe Kwekwe because all the water bills are paid through them,” Matewa said.
Kwekwe finance committee chairperson Councillor Queenly Chitopo said council had closed its water valves to pressure Redcliff to pay the $8 million which had accumulated since 2009.
“They should just pay us for the water we have been delivering to them since 2009 whose bill has accumulated to $8 million,” Chitopo said.
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Ziscosteel, unable to settle its own debts, is banking on the Essar deal which is expected to pump in $750 million into the troubled firm, part of which money would be used to settle past debts.