Midlands Provincial Affairs and Devolution Minister Larry Mavima has instructed the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) to stop disconnecting Gweru City Council (GCC) for non-payment of a debt.
He also directed Gweru City Council not to disconnect water supplies to defaulting residents but come up with acceptable payment plans.
Mavima said this when he met ZESA and GCC officials at his offices after the former switched off electricity to the latter over non-payment of a $257 million debt.
On Tuesday, ZESA disconnected electricity at Gweru’s water treatment plants at two of its main water sources, White Waters and Gwenhoro dams.
ZESA also disconnected Town House resulting in the council failing to collect revenue and thereby affecting its ability to pay off its debt to the power utility.
ZESA reconnected GCC on Friday afternoon following the commitment by the council to a payment plan.
ZESA Southern Region general manager Gibson Kasipo represented the power utility while acting town clerk Vakayi Douglas Chikwekwe represented the local authority during the meeting with Mavima.
Mavima ordered GCC to come up with an acceptable payment plan to clear its ZESA debt while calling on residents to pay their water bills and rates timeously. He said:
<blockquote>
Zesa is urged to explore other measures of enforcing payment for their services by local authorities as opposed to resorting to disconnection of power at critical service facilities such as water plants.
Furthermore, the local authority will not disconnect residents’ water and instead should look at other alternative ways to recover the debt such as attachment of property.
And that goes for Zesa attaching council property.
I want to urge residents of Gweru to fully play their part by consistently paying their water bills and rates to enable the local authority to meet its service delivery obligations.
</blockquote>
This is not the first time that ZESA has switched off the local authority for non-payment of debts.
In May 2021, ZESA disconnected GCC’s water treatment plants over a debt of $143 million.
The power utility only restored supplies after the council committed to a monthly payment plan of $13 million.
<h4>More: <a href="https://www.chronicle.co.zw/minister-instructs-zesa-to-stop-disconnecting-gcc/">Chronicle</a></h4>

Pindula News

Mavima Instructs ZESA To Stop Disconnecting Gweru

Gweru has been without running water for five days thereby raising fears of a humanitarian disaster.
Taps ran dry across the whole city on Saturday due to a power outage at the city’s water supply source – Gwenhoro Dam which is situated 46km away from Gweru.
Gweru mayor, Councilor Josiah Makombe said there was no electricity at Gwenhoro Dam following the power outage on Saturday morning. He said:
<blockquote>There are some ZESA poles which collapsed along the power line to Gwenhoro Dam on Saturday. ZESA has been working on them.
Because of the power outage, we haven’t been pumping water and that resulted in the taps running dry.
ZESA is working flat out to address the fault line and we hope soon we will have water back.</blockquote>
People with boreholes on their properties especially in low-density suburbs such as Athlone, Lundi Park and Kopje have been selling the commodity for US$4 per 20litre bucket.
In high-density areas such as Mkoba 15, 18 and 21, those with wells which are mostly unprotected have also been selling water for at least US$2 per 20litre bucket.
<h4>More: <a href="https://www.chronicle.co.zw/five-days-of-no-water-in-gweru/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Chronicle</a></h4>

Gweru Goes 5 Days Without Water, Council Blames ZESA

The city of Gweru is facing a potential water crisis with reports indicating that raw water at its main supply dam, Gwenhoro has fallen to just 18 per cent.
Gweru Mayor Councilor Josiah Makombe told a full council meeting on Tuesday that the water levels have receded to that point due to depressed inflows during the rainy season. He said:
<blockquote>Our major source of raw water at Gwenoro dam is now at 18 per cent capacity because we did not receive enough rainfall during the last season.
Council has an alternative source which is Amapongokwe but our pumping capacity at the alternative source is constrained as we are operating on one raw water pump instead of five.
The City is making frantic efforts for the procurement of two Amapongokwe pumps. The price of a single pump is estimated at plus or minus US$500 000.</blockquote>
Gweru Town Clerk Ms Elizabeth Gwatipedza revealed that the council has engaged Unki Mine and a bank in a bid to get loans to sink commercial boreholes. She said:
<blockquote>There is hope to alleviate the water shortage situation after the Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe (IDBZ) said they could advance the City with a loan to sink 20 commercial boreholes to feed directly into the water supply system despite them not forthcoming with a loan to buy new pumps for Amapongokwe.
We have done all the necessary surveys and preparations for the sinking of the boreholes.</blockquote>
Gwatipedza said that Gweru is still waiting for funds promised by the government way back in 2017 to acquire pumping equipment for Amapongokwe.
<h4>More: <a href="https://www.263chat.com/amp/gweru-city-turns-to-banks-and-mines-to-avert-water-crisis/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">263Chat</a></h4>

Gwenhoro Dam Latest News

Latest Jobs