RYAN CHIGOCHE
Harare residents have expressed disquiet over the city council’s imperfect water billing system.
It comes at a time when some residents have been receiving outrageous water bills despite spending weeks or months without accessing tap water.
Speaking to Business Times, Precious Shumba, the director of the Harare Residents Trust, said the city’s billing system has strained the city’s relationship with residents.
“Currently, water supplies are erratic. The City of Harare does not have a functional billing system to accurately record revenues generated from the multiple revenue streams. Residents are being billed in estimated figures which has affected the relationship between the citizens and the council,’’ Shumba said.
In the high density suburbs, long queues at few donated boreholes have become the norm despite each household receiving a month’s estimated water with no relation to the amount of water used.
One of the reasons for the shortage of water is the huge purification costs as at least 10 chemicals are required to purify water.
Harare residents require 800 megalitres per day. But, the city currently has a capacity of just 295 megalitres a day.
Also adding to the water is negative environmental impact on the back of depleting wetlands , which act as filtering sponges.
Wetlands are depleting fast in Harare through unrestrained construction work.
Shumba said the practice is compromising the city’s water supply.
In his latest state of the city address, Harare mayor, Jacob Mafume, acknowledged the long-standing problem.
The local authority has also been at loggerheads with residents over failure to collect garbage.
Refuse collection is next to nil throughout the suburbs with visible heaps of garbage on street corners, shopping centers and open spaces, which adds to air and land pollution,’’ Shumba said.
