TENDAI BHEBE
Hwange residents owe the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) at least ZWL$44m, a situation which has severely compromised service delivery in the local board.
This has seen residents going for more than two days without water after the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company disconnected power at Hwange’s Water Treatment Plant run by ZINWA over unpaid bills.
ZINWA corporate communications and marketing manager Marjorie Munyonga said people should settle their bills.
ZINWA and the local board have been fighting over the control of management of water in the town for a long time.
“ZINWA urges water users in Hwange and other places where ZINWA supplies water to expeditiously settle their debts for ZINWA to have the necessary and adequate resources for the procurement of key inputs such as electricity, plant spares and water treatment chemicals,” Munyonga said.
She said most residents owe the institution from the moment they were using the postpaid system.
A number of clients are on prepaid water meters but still owe in excess of ZWL$44m from the time when they were still on the postpaid system.
However, Hwange residents want ZINWA to hand over the water treatment plant to their municipality.
Greater Hwange Residents Association coordinator Fidelis Chima said as residents they will continue lobbying until they win the case.
“We have approached Parliament seeking its intervention in regards to water management. We want ZINWA to hand over water management to Hwange Local Board in line with the devolution principles,” Chima said, adding they will not rest until “such a time water management is actually handed back to the people of Hwange so that an accountable authority will manage water in Hwange”.
The treatment plant is being administered by ZINWA while the municipality is responsible for the distribution of water in the district.
Early this year, Gwanda residents petitioned President Mnangagwa over a stand-off between ZINWA and the Gwanda Municipality which has affected water supply in the mining town.
ZINWA was directed by the government last year to hand over the water treatment plant to the municipality but it was reportedly still holding onto the plant due to unpaid bills.
