Government bails out Harare with US$7 million for water treatment

Nokuthula Dube and Nokutenda Tobve

HARARE residents can expect an improvement in their water supply soon, after the Government allocated US$7,2 million to the city council to buy water treatment chemicals.

Harare’s major water treatment plant, Morton Jaffray, can pump about 700 megalitres (ML) a day, but it has been operating at less than half that capacity for several years mainly due to a shortage of chemicals.

In an interview with The Sunday Mail, Harare City Council (HCC) town clerk Engineer Hosea Chisango said the local authority had sought the Government’s intervention, as it was in a desperate situation.

The Government then agreed to provide the money in three tranches, with the first allocation earmarked to fix pumps and filters.

“The Ministry and Finance (Economic Development and Investment Promotion) pledged to give us about US $7,2 million after we appealed to the Government, telling them about the problems we were facing.

“The money has been broken down into three phases. We will get US$1,3 million at first, over US$2,5 million for the second phase, then the remainder of over US$3 million.”

He said the first tranche was ready to be taken up after the council agreed that the money would be sent directly to suppliers.

“The first phase of US$1,3 million has already been approved. We are only waiting to deal with our suppliers. We agreed that this money should not pass through city council accounts but go directly to suppliers because this is the Government policy and some of the payments will be done out of the country. So, we will then ask the suppliers for guarantees. That’s the stage we are at now.”

Eng Chisango said the funds will help to increase the water pumping capacity from the current 300ML per day to 500ML.

The HCC, he said, incurs a heavy cost in water treatment because multiple chemicals are needed due to the poor quality of Harare’s raw water.

“We spend more on chemicals because raw water quality has deteriorated so much before it is channelled. It needs a lot of processing.

“There are at least five chemicals used for water, which include sulphuric acid, liquid aluminium sulphate, HTH (calcium hypochlorite), gaseous chlorine and powdered activated carbon.”

A report from HCC shows that in January alone, the council spent more than US$1,5 million to buy water treatment chemicals.

“The director of Harare Water reported that the total water production for the month ending January 31, 2024 was 9 124,150ML (at 294,327ML per day), at a total chemical cost of US$1 533 782,57. The average cost of chemicals for producing a cubic metre of water was US$0,168,” reads the report.

HCC says it struggles to raise adequate funds to buy chemicals because it relies on ratepayers, who regularly default, while it also has challenges in securing the required foreign currency.