Brian Rungano Temba
Masvingo City Council does not believe that the current water crisis bedeviling the city is of their own making but indiscretions of their previous leaders.
This was revealed by Masvingo Ward 10 councillor Sengerai Manyanga, during a social media interaction with residents when he said the current City Council is not an architect of the water woes.
Responding to bitter residents who had gone for weeks without water supply, Cllr Manyanga said that Masvingo had grown in population beyond the capacity of its water reserves and the shortage is because it has to be rationed between locations.
“We have discussed this topic on this Whatsapp group before and its now monotonous, our reserves supply 30 million litres a day and the actual population today requires around 45 million litres a day meaning we need 15 million litres extra to sufficiently service every household in Masvingo.
“This is including the new residential areas such as Victoria Ranch, which before its establishment the 30 million litres was sufficient for Masvingo City per day,” said Cllr Manyanga.
Cllr Manyanga said City Council is working on Water Augmentation Phase 2 where they will replicate the designs of the existing tanks that are built on the hills of Mucheke to exploit gravitational energy.
“We have engaged a Chinese company that won the tender to build the tanks and water system, they want $5 million USD cash to do the job.
“The Chinese Company is supposed to create another 30 million litre capacity tank on the hill to satisfy the 15 million litre deficit and cover any future population growth,” said Cllr Manyanga.
He said that Council has applied to Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and the World Bank for the $5 million USD loan.
Residents have been using boreholes sunk by Action Farm and repaired by City Council using Devolution funds in the absence of water supply.
Local Residents Association MASDRRA-Shamwari YeVagari chaiperson Pianos Chadya said the excuse given by council does not hold water.
Chadya said that water is not only an indelible human right, but is essential in keeping pandemics like cholera at bay.
“Council might blame the short-sighted design made by the city founders but failure to service the city with available alternatives will be the Current City Council’s own undoing,” said Chadya.
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