HARARE City Council is pumping less than 400 megalitres of water per day against a daily demand of at least 1 200 megalitres due to a myriad of challenges.
A number of suburbs are going for weeks on end without water, forcing many to turn to unsafe water sources, resulting in disease outbreaks.
Speaking before a commission of inquiry looking into the operations of Harare from 2017 to date, acting town clerk Phakamile Mabhena Moyo said the water problems were a result of depressed pumping capacity due to ageing equipment, among other challenges.
“Our demand is over 800 megalitres per day, but we are pumping around 400 megalitres,” Mabhena said before the commission on Wednesday.
The commission was appointed by President Emmerson Mnangagwa in May last year to investigate city council operations dating back to 2017.
“In terms of what we call non-revenue water, non-revenue water is a combination of both physical and commercial losses. So our non-revenue water, in the last study, was estimated at 60% of what we pump,” Mabhena said.
“This is due to non-functional metres, water theft, and basically it’s more if we cannot account for the water in terms of payments.
“People are not paying for one reason or another. So we estimate our physical losses to be around 20% of what we pump.”
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Reports have also shown that the municipality is failing to bill some properties.
In Harare, cholera is endemic and experts say this is mainly because of water shortages.
