All eyes on Helcraw

Harare’s perennial water woes have persisted for decades with no end in sight.

Thousands have died due to waterborne diseases, millions remain hopeless and the city of Harare has significantly failed to address the water woes and residents are livid.

Deals have been structured and millions released only to vanish into thin air, leaving suspicion that cartels are milking the local authority while the residents fork out their hard earned cash in loan repayment for a service they hardly deliver.

Greater Harare has been ravaged by a Cholera crisis and other waterborne diseases due to severe water shortages and the lamentations goes on with hope fading.

From the US$144 loan facility to more woes

In 2010, Harare secured a US$144mn loan from the China Exim Bank meant for the rehabilitation of the Morton Jaffray waterworks and that was touted as the “panacea” to the water crises that had affected the metropolis leading to a rise in waterborne diseases.

However, the water crisis did not die with the secured loan but took a turn for the worse.

Of the US$144 million, US$72 million was availed by the Chinese bank and the officials at Town House bought luxurious vehicles including then state-of-the-art machines like the VW Amarok, Mazda BT50 and others for management under the guise of “necessary service vehicles.”

The facility was meant to address the piping challenges at Morton Jaffray that had become rusty and obsolete.

Nothing was done.

A contracted Chinese company that came through and set base did a few touches and left.

When the multi-million-dollar corruption reached Mnangagwa, Xi Jinping

What makes the city of Harare water corruption, particularly the US$144mn issue more embarrassing is that it got the attention of Chinese President Xi Jinping and he offloaded his displeasure to his counterpart, President Emmerson Mnangagwa in 2019.

Mnangagwa, in 2019, said those involved in looting and recklessly spending the US$72mn were no longer part of his government but would be pursued.

“We had a loan extended to Harare City Council by the Chinese for sanitation and water reticulation. That money was then used to buy cars and other luxuries,” he said then. “It did not address the issues for which the money had been given. So, when I met my brother and colleague President Xi Jinping and discussed this loan. I was not aware that had happened and so I said, ‘Mr President, you gave us this loan but stopped it before all the money had been fully disbursed’, and he said, ‘My brother, the money was not used for what we had given you for.’ I was not aware people bought cars, some having workshops which had nothing to do with sanitation,” the President said, highlighting the extent of the reckless spending and grand theft by the city of Harare.

A World Bank-appointed consultant, Engineer Peter Morris, found out that some components were priced five times over their market value and that the cost of the US$144 million project could have been over-priced by around US$100 million.

This came out in Morris’ Technical Assistance to City of Harare for the

Greater Harare Water and Sanitation Strategic Plan document in 2015.

What is really the problem with addressing the Harare water crisis?

Harare is faced with a myriad of challenges in addressing water woes.

One of the biggest challenges is the non-revenue water with the city losing 60% of treated water to leakages.

“This is like taking millions of dollars and throwing it into a deep-blue sea,” Local Governance expert, Victor Saurombe, said.

“Millions are used to buy chemicals to treat the water and make it potable but it’s lost along the way due to rusty pipes, leaking pipes, illegal connections in illegal settlements among other reasons,” he added.

The leaking or stolen water would have been treated and pumped but is lost before reaching the customer, either through leaks or unauthorized consumption/metering errors, experts explain.

At least US$3mn is lost monthly through leakages and theft by illegal connections.

On its own, the City of Harare has failed to address the challenges and have resorted to Public Private Partnerships (PPPs).

Another problem has been the fading capacity by the Morton Jaffray Water Works to supply sufficient water to suburbs.

Morton Jaffray was first commissioned in 1952 with the oldest part of the plant commissioned in 1953, making it 73 years-old, and is expected to service at least 250k people who were residents of the then Salisbury in Rhodesia.

Currently, it is expected to serve over 2.5mn in Greater Harare and this is just expecting too much.

“Pipes have been replaced countless times but the biggest problem is due to pressure, you fix this part and it goes to affect the next point,” Saurombe said.

According to the city of Harare, the city operates a sewer reticulation network spanning approximately 5,000 kilometres, consisting of various pipe materials including earthenware, asbestos cement (AC), steel, PVC, and ccGRP pipes.

Documents show that a significant portion of this network—particularly the earthenware and AC pipelines—was installed prior to 1980 and has now exceeded its functional lifespan.

Earthenware pipes and AC pipes, long outdated in terms of durability and compliance with current hydraulic and environmental performance standards, are prone to undetectable deterioration.

Failures typically become evident only when pipe collapses lead to surface subsidence or serious service interruptions.

When a desperate city calls for backup

In what could be an admission of failure, in January, 2025, acting Town Clerk, Mabhena Moyo wrote to the Chief Secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet seeking for assistance to address the dire situation in the capital.

Moyo was clear that Harare’s water infrastructure has reached a “breaking point” due to a combination of aging infrastructure, population growth and insufficient investment over the years.

The city didn’t even have cars for operations to fix the water crisis, that is how dire the situation was.

The city, according to the letter, is only providing water services to at least 48% of the population in the metropolitan area managing only 300 megalitres of the demand of 1200 megalitres.

Estimated cost of the water services and chemicals intervention runs into US$51 215 839.00 according to Moyo.

Aging sewer lines and inadequate treatment capacity have led to frequent overflows of raw sewage into residential areas, streets and water bodies.

The city is looking into projects that include addressing obsolete piping to deal with non-revenue water headaches.

In its letter, the city is looking into pipe replacement, metering, valve replacement, pressure monitoring and control.

The comprehensive project involves three key components, each designed to address specific challenges faced by the city:

Then enter Helcraw Water (Pvt) Ltd

In the midst of the water crisis, Helcraw Water (Pvt) Ltd announced its presence on the “how to solve Harare’s water crisis” scene.

The city has engaged into a public-private partnership (PPP) to address water supply issues with the Farai Jere-run entity but there has been a misconception that the firm is all about prepaid smart water meters and just one of those money-making ventures by corrupt elements.

However, the situation on the ground points to what the company is really doing to address the water crisis and it is not only just prepaid smart water meters as explained by officials during a tour of their premises by journalists and they do more than just prepaid water meters.

(1) Rehabilitation of Morton Jaffray Water Treatment Plant

It came out that the company is also involved in the rehabilitation of Morton Jaffray Waterworks.

Morton Jaffray has been operating below capacity for years. The partnership aims to increase its output from the current 350 megalitres per day to over 520 megalitres, ensuring adequate supply for the city’s growing population. Upgrades will include modernising filtration processes, chemical dosing, and automation systems to improve efficiency, reliability, and resilience against future shocks.

“Rehabilitating Morton Jaffray is crucial. We are investing in state-of-the-art technology to ensure the plant operates at optimal levels. This will secure water for current and future generations,” a senior Helcraw official was quoted as saying.

(2) Replacement of Ageing Distribution Pipes

The company, we were told, is also into replacing the ageing pipes that have contributed significantly to leakages and contaminating water. The significant part of the water loss problem, authorities say, stems from the deteriorating asbestos cement pipes laid decades ago.

The pipes are prone to bursts, leaks, and contamination, which contribute to high non-revenue water — estimated at around 60%. The project will replace over 500 kilometres of old pipes with durable, corrosion-resistant PVC alternatives.

Replacing these pipes is vital according to Town House officials who say it will reduce physical losses, improve water quality, and ensure stable pressure across the city.

Targeted areas for this are those that have residents who have suffered for years.

(3) Deployment of Smart Prepaid Water Meters

To modernise billing and improve revenue collection, the project includes installing smart prepaid water meters across Harare. These meters will enable real-time monitoring, leak detection, and accurate billing, reducing commercial losses and enhancing transparency.

Authorities say smart meters are game-changers as they empower residents to manage their water usage, prevent wastage, and ensure fair billing.

Recently, Mayor Jacob Mafume, told Business Times that a lot still needs to be done to pump water to all the households and expressed hope that the city’s deal with Helcraw Water (Pvt) Ltd will go a long way.

“What people must understand is that water is a continuous ecosystem. It begins by building the reservoir so the building of Lake Chivero was done a long time ago, we built Darwendale, we then built Morton Jaffray which was then improved by loans from the Chinese and those improvements are still there. What we are doing now is to improve where the Chinese loans left off by Helcraw.”

$10bn debt haunts council

The 𝗖𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗿𝗲 is 𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗱 $𝟭𝟬 𝗕𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻 by residents, business and government.

“Our debt has surged to over $10 billion, and the largest portion of this burden is domestic,” Moyo said yesterday.

He emphasized the need for council officials to come up with strategies to collect the debt, urging Regional Managers to take the lead in debt recovery for the domestic sector.

Moyo added that residents must pay their fair share to enable the council to fund essential service delivery programmes.

“Revenue is the fuel for service delivery, and without it, council’s commitment to the residents remains a set of unfulfilled promises,” he added.

After years of a chaotic billing system, failure to address ageing infrastructure leading to unavailability of the precious liquid by council despite huge investments, it remains to be seen whether Helcraw Water (Pvt) Ltd will deliver.

With what has been seen in areas like Warren Park and recently Borrowdale among other areas where residents had gone for decades without water, we can only remain hopeful as all eyes remain fixed on Helcraw Water (Pvt) Ltd.