News / Regional
Government to blame for Gwanda water woes - Council
22 Feb 2015 at 12:43hrs | Views
Municipality of Gwanda councillors have exonerated the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) of any blame on the on going water problems the town is facing instead throwing the blame at the government.
Addressing about 100 residents of the town who responded to a call for a public meeting to discuss the water problems in the town, Mayor Knowledge Ndlovu in a surprise change of stance told residents that ZINWA has never refused to budge to any of council's demands on water. The mayor instead blamed the Minister of Environment and Water Development for delaying the process of getting ZINWA to hand over water treatment and reticulation to council.
The Mayor highlighted to the residents that the only solution to the water problems in the town is with ZINWA handing over the water treatment plant to council a process which ZINWA has never refused to do. Ndlovu told residents that the process of the hand over was almost complete under the hands of the previous Minister responsible for water in the GNU, MDC's Samuel Sipepa Nkomo but the process had to start all over after the appointment of Saviour Kasukuwere into the portfolio.
The Mayor reported that Minister Kasukuwere refused to accept a report and recommendation made by the previous Minister which had already closed the hand over arrangement. The arrangement had got to a stage where Council and ZINWA were already working on the logistics of the hand over.
"The problem is that when the current Minister of Water took office he refused to accept an assessment report done under the previous Minister and insisted on doing his own assessment before making a ruling which is what we are still waiting for," said the Mayor.
"We were already working on the logistics of how to do the handover with ZINWA and how the issue of the debt council owes ZINWA was to be sorted out when the Minister put everything on hold," he added.
The Municipality of Gwanda is reportedly owing ZINWA about $7.2 million dollars which ZINWA wants a commitment to in order to finalise the handover process. Other towns which ZINWA handed the water treatment to came to payment arrangements of outstanding debts which Mayor Ndlovu reported as not going to be a problem agreeing on as long as the go ahead to hand over the plant has been done by the Minister.
Concurring with the Mayor, Councillor Thulani Moyo of ward 9 put the blame on the $7.2 million debt council is faced with on government. Councillor Moyo told residents that when government cancelled debts owed to council in the run up to the 2013 election there was no corresponding relief to council against ZINWA.
"When government cancelled 100% of your debts to council they only cancelled 40% of what we owed to ZINWA this $7 million is the 60% that was not accorded to us and there is no way we can recover that. We are busy negotiating with the authorities to cancel the 60% that was left out and we appear not to be winning," said the councillor.
The Mayor added that residents were not doing the council any good as they are also not paying their bills. According to the Mayor, ZINWA bills council $120 000 per month while council only collects about $15 000 per month. The mayor said ZINWA can not be blamed for failing to supply water to capacity under those circumstances.
However, recent media reports published on Gwanda debtors to council revealed that the biggest debtor to council is the government itself owing about 90% on the water debtors. The Ministry Of Local Government Public Works and National Housing is the top debtor in the ministries as the department responsible for government properties in the town and most of them are the biggest users of water yet not paying. Other Ministries like Health, Education and the Police also owe huge amounts of money to council on water the media reports claimed.
Responding to council, residents complained of the high price of water in the town which they claim to be beyond their reach. Council buys water from ZINWA at $0.80 and sales to residents at $0.95. The residents also blamed council for the huge amounts of water leakages in the town some which according to residents have not been attended to for up to five years.
In contradiction to his fellow councillors, Chairman of the council Environmental Committee councillor Mduduzi Malaba Ncube refused to absolve the national water authority for the town's water woes. Malaba insisted that ZINWA was the problem as the authority was not cooperating with council to an extent of even closing out council staff and councillors from inspecting the amount of water pumped into the reticulation tanks. Councillor Ncube hinted the opposite suggesting that negotiations with ZINWA are not going on well as ZINWA was not willing to bend to council's demands.
Residents called on council to involve residents representation in discussions with ZINWA to purge a way forward in solving the water problems believing that council was treating ZINWA with kid gloves. The residents went on to suggest that if ZINWA is difficult dealing with council must take the authority to court to get an interdict that will force the authority to allow council to enter and inspect the water levels in the tanks and pumping capacity from the pump station.
The water administrative problems in Gwanda have been on going for years as ZINWA and Council continue throwing the blame on each other while residents endure days without a drop in their tapes. The general belief over the years has been that ZINWA is the problem belief which has taken a new twist following Saturday's meeting.
Addressing about 100 residents of the town who responded to a call for a public meeting to discuss the water problems in the town, Mayor Knowledge Ndlovu in a surprise change of stance told residents that ZINWA has never refused to budge to any of council's demands on water. The mayor instead blamed the Minister of Environment and Water Development for delaying the process of getting ZINWA to hand over water treatment and reticulation to council.
The Mayor highlighted to the residents that the only solution to the water problems in the town is with ZINWA handing over the water treatment plant to council a process which ZINWA has never refused to do. Ndlovu told residents that the process of the hand over was almost complete under the hands of the previous Minister responsible for water in the GNU, MDC's Samuel Sipepa Nkomo but the process had to start all over after the appointment of Saviour Kasukuwere into the portfolio.
The Mayor reported that Minister Kasukuwere refused to accept a report and recommendation made by the previous Minister which had already closed the hand over arrangement. The arrangement had got to a stage where Council and ZINWA were already working on the logistics of the hand over.
"The problem is that when the current Minister of Water took office he refused to accept an assessment report done under the previous Minister and insisted on doing his own assessment before making a ruling which is what we are still waiting for," said the Mayor.
"We were already working on the logistics of how to do the handover with ZINWA and how the issue of the debt council owes ZINWA was to be sorted out when the Minister put everything on hold," he added.
The Municipality of Gwanda is reportedly owing ZINWA about $7.2 million dollars which ZINWA wants a commitment to in order to finalise the handover process. Other towns which ZINWA handed the water treatment to came to payment arrangements of outstanding debts which Mayor Ndlovu reported as not going to be a problem agreeing on as long as the go ahead to hand over the plant has been done by the Minister.
"When government cancelled 100% of your debts to council they only cancelled 40% of what we owed to ZINWA this $7 million is the 60% that was not accorded to us and there is no way we can recover that. We are busy negotiating with the authorities to cancel the 60% that was left out and we appear not to be winning," said the councillor.
The Mayor added that residents were not doing the council any good as they are also not paying their bills. According to the Mayor, ZINWA bills council $120 000 per month while council only collects about $15 000 per month. The mayor said ZINWA can not be blamed for failing to supply water to capacity under those circumstances.
However, recent media reports published on Gwanda debtors to council revealed that the biggest debtor to council is the government itself owing about 90% on the water debtors. The Ministry Of Local Government Public Works and National Housing is the top debtor in the ministries as the department responsible for government properties in the town and most of them are the biggest users of water yet not paying. Other Ministries like Health, Education and the Police also owe huge amounts of money to council on water the media reports claimed.
Responding to council, residents complained of the high price of water in the town which they claim to be beyond their reach. Council buys water from ZINWA at $0.80 and sales to residents at $0.95. The residents also blamed council for the huge amounts of water leakages in the town some which according to residents have not been attended to for up to five years.
In contradiction to his fellow councillors, Chairman of the council Environmental Committee councillor Mduduzi Malaba Ncube refused to absolve the national water authority for the town's water woes. Malaba insisted that ZINWA was the problem as the authority was not cooperating with council to an extent of even closing out council staff and councillors from inspecting the amount of water pumped into the reticulation tanks. Councillor Ncube hinted the opposite suggesting that negotiations with ZINWA are not going on well as ZINWA was not willing to bend to council's demands.
Residents called on council to involve residents representation in discussions with ZINWA to purge a way forward in solving the water problems believing that council was treating ZINWA with kid gloves. The residents went on to suggest that if ZINWA is difficult dealing with council must take the authority to court to get an interdict that will force the authority to allow council to enter and inspect the water levels in the tanks and pumping capacity from the pump station.
The water administrative problems in Gwanda have been on going for years as ZINWA and Council continue throwing the blame on each other while residents endure days without a drop in their tapes. The general belief over the years has been that ZINWA is the problem belief which has taken a new twist following Saturday's meeting.
Source - Byo24News
