Own Correspondent|After over twenty years of struggle for water, the newly elected MDC Mayor of Gwanda Jastine Mazhale has managed to strike a deal that has seen the Zimbabwe National Water Authority release the town’s water treatment plant to the local authority.

Highly placed sources within the opposition MDC indicated to ZimEye.com that the council and ZINWA signed a Memorandum Of Understanding to hand over the water treatment plant to the local authority on Friday last week.

According to the sources, the new MDC mayor only visited the Ministry of Local Government on two occasions to negotiate the deal and was successful while the previous ZANU PF mayor Knowledge Ndlovu made over thirty unsuccessful trips to the capital to negotiate for the plant transfer.

“We are very excited with the hands on approach of our new mayor who has hit the road running by solving the Gwanda water problem in just under six months in office,” said the source.

Gwanda has been having severe water challenges for the last two decades due to the dual administration of the water network between the council and Zinwa.

Zinwa has been demanding for the settlement of a $7 million debt from the local authority which saw persistent water disconnection to the residents of the town.

The water authority at one time installed prepaid water meters on the water supply to the town forcing council to battle to purchase water in advance for the residents.

ZimEye.com could not get details of the agreement signed between the two authorities. A council official who spoke to ZimEye.com on Friday confirmed that the local authority had been given the water treatment plant but could not give details as both the mayor and town clerk were reported to be out of town at a workshop in Bulawayo.