News / Regional
Zinwa cuts Gwanda water supply, Chombo keeps mum
15 Nov 2013 at 03:11hrs | Views
A SERIOUS water crisis has hit Gwanda Town, the provincial capital of Matabeleland South, after the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) cut supplies over a $5 million debt owed by the local authority.
The debt accrued from February 2009 to October this year.
The latest development follows a directive by the Zinwa board.
Zinwa reportedly introduced a stringent water rationing schedule this week and they are pumping 2 400 cubic metres of water per day for eight hours.
However, the town's water consumption per day stands at about 10 000 cubic metres.
Umzingwane Catchment manager Mr Tommy Rosen yesterday confirmed the development.
"We have been trying to get our money from the Gwanda Municipality for a very long time prompting the Zinwa board to issue a directive. We need to get that debt cleared immediately.
"We are pumping $100 000 worth of water to the town every month and they have managed to pay us $2 000 over the last five months.
"Instead of disconnecting the water supplies completely we have decided to reduce daily water supplies. We are only supplying 400 cubic metres of water per day for eight hours until they pay up," said Mr Rosen.
He said Zinwa resorted to water rationing following an assurance from the council executive promising to come up with a reasonable payment plan.
He said it was difficult for Zinwa to continue pumping free water to the mining town when they were also faced with capacity problems in terms of procuring chemicals and meeting operational costs.
Gwanda Town Clerk Mr Gilbert Mlilo said in an interview yesterday that they were still engaging Zinwa over the issue.
"We are still negotiating with Zinwa over a payment plan and hopefully we will come to a mutual understanding this week.
"The situation has been worsened by the teething challenges we are having in terms of revenue collection as residents do not own up their debts," he said.
Mr Mlilo said though the local authority had complied with the Government directive to scrap debts owed by residents between 2009 and June this year, the ratepayers were yet to develop a culture of settling debts.
Gwanda Municipality cancelled $3,5 million debts in July in line with a Government directive.
Residents owe council $600 000 in water consumption bills.
The debt accrued from February 2009 to October this year.
The latest development follows a directive by the Zinwa board.
Zinwa reportedly introduced a stringent water rationing schedule this week and they are pumping 2 400 cubic metres of water per day for eight hours.
However, the town's water consumption per day stands at about 10 000 cubic metres.
Umzingwane Catchment manager Mr Tommy Rosen yesterday confirmed the development.
"We have been trying to get our money from the Gwanda Municipality for a very long time prompting the Zinwa board to issue a directive. We need to get that debt cleared immediately.
"We are pumping $100 000 worth of water to the town every month and they have managed to pay us $2 000 over the last five months.
He said Zinwa resorted to water rationing following an assurance from the council executive promising to come up with a reasonable payment plan.
He said it was difficult for Zinwa to continue pumping free water to the mining town when they were also faced with capacity problems in terms of procuring chemicals and meeting operational costs.
Gwanda Town Clerk Mr Gilbert Mlilo said in an interview yesterday that they were still engaging Zinwa over the issue.
"We are still negotiating with Zinwa over a payment plan and hopefully we will come to a mutual understanding this week.
"The situation has been worsened by the teething challenges we are having in terms of revenue collection as residents do not own up their debts," he said.
Mr Mlilo said though the local authority had complied with the Government directive to scrap debts owed by residents between 2009 and June this year, the ratepayers were yet to develop a culture of settling debts.
Gwanda Municipality cancelled $3,5 million debts in July in line with a Government directive.
Residents owe council $600 000 in water consumption bills.
Source - chronicle
