By Farai D Hove| An alert was raised on Sunday after the municipality reportedly ran out of water treatment chemicals. The development could see the whole city running dry by Tuesday.

Below was the first announcement by the Harare Municipality.

DEAR RESIDENTS
Harare City Council has run out of key water treatment chemicals and is at the moment stretching the little available amounts to treat limited supplies of water. If no urgent bailout is given between today and Tuesday, management will beforced to Qshut down Morton Jaffray Water Treatment Plant.

Council is buying foreign currency on the runaway interbank exchange market against a stagnant and inflexible budget.

Commenting on the development, Community Water Alliance programs manager, Hardlife Mudzingwa said:

This confirms Community Water Alliance position that central Government should declare water a national disaster. It is clear that Government from national level to the lowest tier has failed to honor it’s obligations to protect, respect and fulfill the human right to water and citizens have been exposed to water borne diseases.

Declaring a state of disaster in line with Section 27(1) of the Civil Protection Act (Chapter 10:06) is the only viable option that will invite non-state actors to help citizens. It will unlock financial resources and and also help treating the water crisis with the urgency it deserves.

Meanwhile, in a second statement later Sunday mid day, the Mayor said:

STATUS OF WATER CHEMICALS

BY THE MAYOR

SOME suppliers of water treatment chemicals were paid last week but are yet to make deliveries.

The companies are paid first and then source the required products.
The companies use the ZWL component to buy forex from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe at the prevailing interbank rate.

Last Wednesday ZIMPHOS was paid ZWL500 000 while Chilmand was paid ZWL1.2 million and KITHRA ZWL1 million.

These companies are owed over ZWL 50 million ​for previously deliveries.
The interbank exchange rate at which the city buys forex is affecting service delivery because when the citu sells the water toresidents it does not rate its costs for onward transfer to residents.

For example its costs over ZWL 15.00 to treat one cubic meter of water but the city sells the same amount for ZWL 0.80c .

Council requires Government approval to adjust the cost of water to residents. ​

THE MONEY PROMISED BY GVNT IS YET TO BE RECEIVED BY THE COUNCIL

THANK YOU ?