By Correspondent
Harare is losing between 40% and 60% of treated water due to leakages at a time most of the capital is suffering water shortages.
This was revealed by the Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement, Dr Anxious Masuku.
Aged Infrastructure to Blame
Addressing the National Assembly the Minister said, “the Ministry is concerned that high water losses in most of the local authorities is due to leakages from old distribution systems.
“The losses range between 40% to 60% for most authorities and we would implore respective local authorities to address this issue urgently”.
Harare has been facing acute water shortages despite revelations that it still has 18 months supply of water until the next rain season.
The shortages have been blamed on lack of treatment chemicals and aged infrastructure.
A case in point is how the City of Harare has not been abstracting water from Manyame Dam for the past 10 years due to a broken-down lift pump at Morton Jaffrey until December 2019 when the Government of Zimbabwe intervened.
The water shortages have resulted in the acute use of boreholes some of which are now running dry.
During this period of Covid19 the public boreholes have also proved unsafe and possible points of infections.
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