KEY Cabinet ministers had to miss a crucial meeting, called two weeks ago to discuss Harare’s protracted water crisis, to attend the ruling Zanu PF party’s politburo meeting, which had been rescheduled.
Zimbabwe’s capital city is grappling with one of its most severe water crises in decades, prompting President Emmerson Mnangagwa to take action by establishing a 19-member technical committee last year tasked with devising solutions.
The Zimbabwe Independent was told that authorities are worried about Harare’s delays to implement a US$5,3 million water treatment project consummated in 2019.
Politburo meetings are traditionally held on Wednesdays, but it had to be moved to a Thursday, a fortnight ago.
University of Zimbabwe civil engineering lecturer Hodson Makurira, chairs the technical committee.
The meeting was held at the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development offices.
Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion minister Mthuli Ncube and Harare metropolitan provincial minister Charles Tavengwa, who are both politburo members, did not attend the meeting.
Makurira told the Independent that Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development minister Anxious Masuka briefly presided over the meeting.
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“Yes, it (the meeting) happened,” Makurira said.
“But there was also a politburo meeting at the same time, so ministers were not available. I am not sure how the minister will want us to proceed,” he said.
Sources close to the deliberations between Masuka and the Makurira-led committee said the meeting discussed US$5,3 million water treatment project agreed by the City of Harare and Nanotech of South Africa, which is yet to take off.
“Deliberations focused on how the project can be expedited,” the source said.
Prior to the City of Harare engaging Nanotech, the South African-based company had compiled a report in 2021 revealing that water pipes to the capital’s over one million residents was contaminated with algae and toxic substances.
During that same year, a document compiled by a technical team from the Local Government ministry that toured Botswana to inspect a chlorine dioxide water treatment plant run by Nanotech cautioned that Zimbabwe’s continuous use of aluminium sulphate, among a cocktail of six chemicals, was costly.
“It must be noted that the city and other water treatment works in the country are probably the only water works that still continue to use aluminium sulphate in southern Africa despite the link of aluminium to Alzheimer disease,” a 2021 internal memorandum gleaned by the Independent reads.
The technical committee was set up to accelerate the government’s initiative to construct mega water projects, such as Gwayi-Shangani, Kunzvi, Mutange, and Musami dams.
Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development permanent secretary Obert Jiri had not responded to questions posed by this publication on the outcome of the meeting with the technical committee.
The committee, among other key deliverables, was assigned by Mnangagwa to ensure that the City of Harare purchased adequate water treatment chemicals and established a drilling rig.
The establishment of the committee came at a time Harare was battling a cholera outbreak.
