The government of Zimbabwe through the Ministry of Finance has been dragging its feet to avail funds for water treatment to the City of Harare for improvement of water production during the in line with the High Court Order issued a fortnight ago in favour of the residents.
“As Council we haven’t received any cent from government, the $116 million which have become a talk of town released a week ago was for Chemplex Corporation for their recapitalisation” Said the source. The City of Harare requested ZWL41 million to ensure optimisation of Morton Jaffrey Water treatment plant in order to boost water production but there are allegations that the funds have not been availed.
In the interim relief granted to the residents of Harare represented by CHRA at the High Court on the 31 st of March 2020, the Ministry of Finance was ordered to ensure that funds will be available to the City of Harare in order to ensure that clean potable water will be available to the residents.
“The fourth respondent (Ministry of Finance) shall urgently assist the first respondent (City of Harare) with available resources to implement the measures specified in the order” reads part of the final order.
Currently the City of Harare is producing 210 megalitres of water per day against a demand of 1200 megalitres.
In a snap survey conducted by the Combined Harare Residents Association to monitor compliance of City of Harare and Central government to the High Court Order, boreholes have been repaired in Hatcliffe and Mabvuku and water bowsers have been deployed in most high density areas in the past week.
However, availability of municipal tap water has a potential of decongesting most water points in Harare.
CHRA will continue to monitor compliance of duty bearers to the provisions of the High Court order issued by Justice Zhou a fortnight ago.
Source: Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA)
