Harare City Council is owed over ZWL $589 billion by business, residents and government, as more people and organisations continue to default on rates and other services on which the local authority says is contributing to the water crisis in the city.
Harare has been facing immense water challenges with some suburbs going for months without the precious liquid, a development that has forced residents to use unsafe sources for survival.
Speaking at the indaba meeting organised by Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) under the theme ‘Setting the Agenda for Collective Action towards addressing the Harare Water Crisis”, City of Harare director of water Phakamile Mabhena Moyo said cash flow challenges have incapacitated the city from providing adequate water.
“Harare City Council is owed a total of ZWL $589 billion by commercial, industry, government, parastatals, Zesa, dormitory towns, residents and sundry. The residents have the biggest debt, a total of ZWL $230 billion whilst parastatals have the lowest amount of ZWL $4 billion,” Mabhena Moyo said.
Mabhena Moyo also blamed the water shortages on the city ‘s obsolete machinery and collapsing infrastructure at the water treatment plants.
“Some of the challenges we are facing are that Harare City has aged water treatment and transmission infrastructure, which contributes to water production deficits. Areas such as Avenues, Parirenyatwa, Avondale have old water pipes that need to be replaced.
The city council attends to water bursts but the whole water transmission system needs to be replaced,” he said.
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He added that the council is faced with a burden of US$4 billion for water treatment chemicals.
“The City is facing inadequate supply of water treatment chemicals and also burdened with a debt of US$4 billion for chemicals. To add to this, the city is owed huge amounts by government, industry and residents which is affecting water production,” Mabhena Moyo said.
Speaking at the same event, City of Harare Revenue Manager Alfred Guni urged residents to pay their bills whether they are getting water or not. Residents owe the city a total of ZWL $230 billion in water bills as at 31 October 2023.
“It pains me to see the elderly in a queue, fully committed to paying their bills and I don’t know what to do for them. I can’t dedicate services to a few people who are paying. We cannot dedicate services for a few people. As long as we are failing to fully commit to paying for services rendered, having 20% of people paying, we cannot supply services for the whole city,” Guni said.
