Harare resumes water production

Harare, (New Ziana) – The Harare City Council on Sunday resumed water production after temporarilishutting down owing to shortages of treatment chemicals.

The city shut down its main water treatment plant at Morton Jaffray on Thursday after failing to secure aluminium sulphate from Zimphos.

Zimphos on the other hand said the company had failed to get a chemical called bauxite, a key ingredient in the manufacture of aluminium sulphate, from its suppliers.

The chemicals were finally delivered on Saturday night.

“Production of water has resumed at Morton Jaffray. Mbare, Sunningdale and key industrial clients are already receiving water,” Mayor, Jacob Mafume said.

He said the production would continue to improve with more chemical deliveries expected at the plant, with the situation expected to normalise in the next 24 to 36 hours.

Residents had to turn to boreholes and wells for water supplies as the city ran dry, with sights of people carrying buckets an increasingly common sight in the past two days.

Fears of possible disease outbreaks also ran high given past experiences.

Harare has failed to provide all its suburbs and population of over two million with adequate water supplies in years as the infrastructure has not been upgraded to meet the rise in population.

As a result some suburbs have gone for years without receiving water in their taps, and are permanently reliant on other sources of water, mainly boreholes and unprotected wells.
New Ziana