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Local government media tracker – 26 September 2013
Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA)
September 26, 2013

We will deliver, says Housing Minister
The Herald

Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Minister Ignatius Chombo says the primary goal of his ministry in the next four years is to deliver and transform the livelihoods of people and their communities in line with the new Zanu-PF Government manifesto. He said the ministry would emphasise on service delivery after the amalgamation of three ministries into a single one. Minister Chombo made the remarks during the official opening of the ministry's workshop in Harare.

The workshop was conducted to produce a harmonised mandate in the next four years. Among those in attendance were Deputy Minister Joel Biggie Matiza and senior ministry officials, among them heads of departments, permanent secretaries and provincial administrators. He said the amalgamation of three ministries was reposed with all the potential to deliver tangible results. Minister Chombo said the ministry should be predicated on the ability to respond to the demands of the communities which require service. Permanent secretary Mr Killian Mupingo said their mandate was to have sound local governance predicated on efficient and effective service delivery. Outgoing Public Works permanent secretary Engineer George Mlilo said they intended to plan, implement, construct and maintain all Government's buildings, plant and equipment."There will be formulation, co-ordination of policies for the construction industry and planning to evaluate and manage Government's estates including properties abroad. The Ministry will provide professional and technical advice to local authorities and state enterprises. Outgoing National Housing and Social Amenities Permanent Secretary Mr David Munyoro said the ministry's mandate would include formulation, monitoring and implementation of sound national housing and social amenities policies.

Furore over 144 million dollar water
Nehanda Radio

Harare residents groups have described the $144 million water deal as a dodgy development meant to benefit Town House managers and the Chinese government. Everything around the deal is being hurried before the elected councillors gain control of the council’s affairs, meaning that the Town Clerk Mr Mahachi is desperate to speed up engagement of people and make certain significant decisions in the absence of elected councillors, who will find it extremely difficult to reverse bad decisions.” According to Mahachi, out of the expected 46-member Chinese team, 19 engineers are already in the country to partner the local authority’s technical team at the Morton Jaffrey, Warren Control, and Alex Park and Letombo pump station. The suspicions that the council management handling this deal are afraid of being exposed if locals handle the equipment and other technical areas of the project, so they trust that the Chinese nationals being brought in to work on this project will keep silent. Tendai Muchada, The Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) programmes manager, said the deal was murky. “When this decision to engage the engineers was made, this was at a time council was under the caretaker commission led by Alfred Tome, which means that there were no elected councillors to provide checks and balances to the whole deal,” Muchada said.

“It also contravenes the mantra that we have the highest literacy rate in Africa and poses as an insult to the thousands of engineers we have in Zimbabwe. This also means that the money in itself is meant to benefit the Chinese and not us Zimbabweans in any way. The City of Harare cannot insult us to say that the local people will provide labour at Morton Jaffray being guided by the Chinese, especially with their history of workplace abuse. We are slowly turning into a Chinese colony under the guise of aid.” Harare paid a stipulated 10 percent pre-implementation fund. Residents’ representatives called on councillors to demand answers.

City gets three boreholes
The Herald

The City of Harare, in partnership with Econet Wireless, commissioned three boreholes at Kuwadzana Phase 4 Satellite Clinic and Dzivaresekwa which are expected to alleviate water shortages in the respective areas. The boreholes worth more than US$20 000, were drilled through a partnership under the National Health Care Trust (NHCT), the health arm run by the mobile phone operator. Each unit consists of a submersible water pump, a booster pump and two 5 000-litre water tanks.

Speaking at the commissioning ceremony held at Kuwadzana Phase 4 Satellite Clinic, Harare's director of Health Services, Dr Stanley Mungofa, thanked the mobile service provider for availing the submersible water boreholes in the areas. "In case there is no municipal water, it is guaranteed that there is a continuous supply of water.” Clinics cannot operate without water since there is prioritisation of avoiding cross infection. The city cannot do it alone and we need more companies to do this. Companies have been siphoning money from customers and forgetting their role of giving back," Dr Mungofa said. NHCT managing director Mrs Rose Jena said the water pumps would help health promoters and eradicate diseases.

City water woes set to ease
The Herald

Harare's perennial water woes are set to ease as work on the refurbishment of Morton Jaffrey water treatment plant begins to increase output from the current 450 mega-litres of water to 640. The 42 percent increase, the city engineers say, will bring water to the perennially dry parts of the city, some of which have not had water for the better part of five years. To this end, 19 engineers from China arrived in Harare with a brief to rehabilitate the city's water and sewer infrastructure under the US$144 million loan that was advanced by the china Exim bank in 2011.

Dr Mahachi said the rehabilitation of the water plants is expected to increase the amount of water reaching residents while the rehabilitation of the sewer plants would reduce the pollution of water bodies and the cost of water treatment. They will revamp the entire Morton Jaffrey treatment plant and 640 mega litres of water are expected to be produced a day.

Work to be done at Morton Jaffrey is estimated at US$44 million while the cost for the pump stations is US$16 million. Crowborough and Firle sewage treatment works would use US$17 million, while US$4,5 million would be used on Information Technology for billing and automation of the water and sewer plants. Another US$7 million was set aside to procure two water treatment chemicals and installation of laboratory equipment would use us$1 million while another US$3 million would be used to procure pressure reducing valves and other forms of valves.

Zanu-PF bid to takeover Harare gather pace
The Zimbabwe Mail

Newly-appointed Minister of State for Harare Metropolitan Province Miriam Chikukwa of Zanu-PF says the City of Harare should be run in line with the Zanu-PF election manifesto and nothing else. The provincial minister overseas the running of Harare Metropolitan Province under which the City of Harare falls. The Harare City Council is, however, run by MDC-T party officials who won the majority 39 out of the 46 contested council seats in the capital. The MDC-T runs major cities based on their Local Government electoral victory. These are Harare, Bulawayo, Gweru, Mutare, Masvingo and Chitungwiza. Both the mayor of the capital and his deputy are MDC-T officials and under normal circumstances, the city would be run according to policies put in place by the city fathers who, in this case, are MDC-T officials.

Chikukwa ordered MDC-T councillors to implement programmes outlined in the Zanu-PF campaign manifesto. Speaking at a dinner organised by the Zimbabwe Youth Council in her honour following her appointment, Chikukwa said Zanu-PF programmes should carry the day since it is the ruling party. We only have one manifesto, one commander (President Robert Mugabe) and his manifesto is what we are going to use.

The MDC-T has, however, reacted angrily, saying Chikukwa was an “illegal entity” who should not interfere in the running of the city whose councillors were voted for by the people. Contacted for comment, Zanu-PF secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa threw his weight behind Chikukwa, saying all local authorities had the obligation to implement Zanu-PF’s election manifesto and should resign if they did not want to do so. Zanu-PF after the elections are definitely the ruling party and what the ruling party wants in Zimbabwe must be done for the next five years because we were given the mandate to rule by the people.

New slum threat in Harare
The Zimbabwe Independent

Zimbabweans remember with bitter memories Operation Murambatsvina, a purported urban clean up exercise devised by the Zanu-PF regime which in the winter of 2005 left over 700 000 people homeless, according to the United Nations, while driving thousands to the rural areas. The operation was reportedly a result of Mugabe’s paranoia over the spectre of a possible revolt after general elections by a hard-pressed, teeming urban population which mostly supported the opposition in the midst of hyperinflation and served as a pre-emptive strike against such an uprising. It has been suggested that, by dislocating and disbanding opposition supporters to remote rural locations, the Zanu-PF government would find it easier to control any possible riots or mass protests. During the operation, reportedly coordinated by security forces, all unplanned and unapproved buildings were demolished. Harare was worst affected with illegal structures being demolished in the suburbs of Mbare, Chitungwiza, Tafara, Mabvuku and Budiriro, among others.

However, eight years after the sweeping and devastating demolitions, the slums appear to be back in a big way, especially in Harare where unplanned developments are mushrooming supposedly with the approval of Zanu-PF which now enjoys political hegemony once again. New illegal and haphazard settlements have emerged all over the city with the most prominent being Bob in Mabvuku/Tafara, Eye-Court and Hopley along New Chitungwiza Road, Hatcliffe Extension north of the upmarket Borrowdale suburb and Snake Park along the Harare-Bulawayo highway. The biggest slum is at Hopley on the outskirts of Chitungwiza adjacent to Waterfalls. The buildings are constructed in a random manner confirming that the settlement was not built in line with urban planning regulations. Each household, barely 200 square metres in size, has a small Blair toilet and an unprotected well for domestic water needs.

Most of Hopley residents find menial jobs in nearby Mbare or Glen Norah informal markets. The place has also become a haven for vice such as mugging and prostitution, especially during the tobacco marketing season due to its proximity to the Boka Tobacco Auction Floors. There are no medical facilities or schools at the settlement forcing residents to walk to neighbouring suburbs for most essentials. The situation is more or less the same at other illegal settlements which government has deliberately turned a blind eye to for political and electoral reasons as they mushroomed under the guise of housing schemes. The slums are a worrying trend across Africa’s urban development.

Harare, Bulawayo water and sanitation woes will be history soon
Radio VOP

China has availed a US$144 million loan facility for use in revamping Zimbabwe’s dilapidated water and sanitation infrastructure. The loan facility is set to enhance efforts to bring an end the perennial water shortages bedevilling Harare and other cities. Officially opening of the First session of the Eighth Parliament of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe acknowledged the existence of perennial water woes which the government has struggled to eradicate over the years. The funds, according to Mugabe, were obtained through a loan facility from the People’s Republic of China, one of Zanu-PF’s closest allies since the adoption of the Look East Policy soon after relations with Western governments and the United States of America soured over allegations of human rights violations and breakdown of the rule of law in the country.

Zimbabwe also pulled out of the crucial bloc, the Commonwealth club in 2002, with Mugabe then saying there was no value gained by being in the grouping. The president said three new dams and water treatment plants will be constructed over a period of the 7 years as an attempt to supply residents with clean drinking water and improved sanitary services, a development he said was “expected to significantly improve water supply” in the country. He added that, “such turn around initiatives will be implemented in Bulawayo and other cities”. When eventually implemented, the strategy will eradicate the outbreak of dreaded water borne diseases like cholera and diarrhoea. President Mugabe recently appointed Saviour Kasukuwere as the new minister of Environment, Water and Climate removing him from the Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment ministry now headed by Francis Nhema.

Water woes to dog city for 3 years
The Herald

Harare residents will endure water shortages for the next three years as the city embarks on phased decommissioning of pumps at Morton Jaffrey Water Treatment Plant to pave way for a protracted rehabilitation of the old machinery by Chinese engineers. The revamping of the treatment plant will boost water production at Morton Jaffrey from 614 mega litres per day to 740 mega litres with attendant improvement in the quality of potable water due to a drastic reduction in chemical dosage from 70 to 35 milligrams per litre. Sewage treatment will be boosted from 36 mega litres to 200 mega litres per day.

Town clerk Dr Tendai Mahachi said the water shortages would be experienced in different parts of the city as council decommissions the 14 pumps at Morton Jaffrey at different intervals. He was speaking during a tour of the water treatment plant by Chinese engineers, who immediately got to work by decommissioning three of the pumps yesterday. The engineers could be seen removing some of the dilapidated pumps from the plant. “After securing the US$144 million from China’s Import and Export Bank, part of that money will be channeled to the purchase of new pumps that will replace the old ones,”

During that time, the city will experience water shortages until the whole process is fully completed in the next three years.” The Chinese Export Import Bank has since acquired material to be used for the refurbishment of the 60-year-old water treatment plant.

Dr Mahachi said residents would undergo three years of water rationing to enable the city to increase water output to 80 percent of the city’s requirements at the completion of the project.

City water revenue plunges
The Herald

Harare City Council revenues have taken a plunge to $4, 5 million from an average of $6 million monthly as the local authority is also losing huge quantities of treated water through leakages. The development comes in the wake of an order by Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo for local authorities to write off residents’ debts. The council is losing at least 62% of its treated water to leakages and “non-revenue water”. Speaking at a workshop to discuss the city’s water situation, the director for water Engineer Christopher Zvobgo said some residents in the city were illegally removing water meters.

He urged consumers to reduce water usage in order to conserve the precious liquid and singled out Sunningdale for using large volumes of water at the expense of other residents. Zvobgo said plans were underway to introduce smart meters that would work in the same manner as ZESA’s prepaid meters. He said Harare needed $3 million for water treatment chemicals and $1, 1 million to service energy costs.

Dry taps loom in Gweru
The NewsDay

Gweru residents are headed for a dry spell amid reports that the local authority plans to decommission Gwenoro Dam, the city’s main water supply. City engineer Jones Nathambwe was recently quoted in the, Southern Eye saying Gwenoro had to be decommissioned soon since it had literally run dry. “We will be decommissioning the dam (Gwenoro) soon as the capacity there is only 2%,” he said. Though the city could turn to other dams, Amapongokwe and White waters, investigations by the paper revealed that no proper equipment has been installed at the two dams to meet the city’s water needs through increased pumping capacity. Contacted for comment on the situation at Gwenoro, Town Clerk Daniel Matawu said the right people to talk were the City Engineers. Sources said City Fathers were having headaches on how to handle the water situation if Gwenoro Dam was decommissioned as per council resolution.

Chitungwiza water contaminated
The Sunday Mail

Chitungwiza water supply crisis is set to worsen amid a revelation that the groundwater most households rely on is contaminated, forcing the municipality to order residents to use borehole water for non-consumptive purposes only. This, in turn, has triggered the proliferation of youngsters who are selling communal borehole water at US$1 for 60 litres. Bowser owners are also invariably selling the precious commodity at R2 for 20 litres.

Town Clerk Mr George Makunde attributed the contamination to poor waste management and incessant sewage flow. He said his council abandoned plans to drill more boreholes to address perennial water shortages after a due diligence exercise by the health and environment departments. He said the water supply problems were likely to worsen, adding that residents should seek council permission to sink boreholes and wells.

The population in Chitungwiza has become so large and waste management has not been carried out properly to sustain the environment. It is also an area with sandy soils. “As a municipality, we urge all Chitungwiza residents to first seek authority to dig wells. At the moment, the problem is that in as much as we want a new source of water, we do not have one. We are looking forward to the construction of a dam, as the President said in his speech during the Official Opening of the First Session of the Eighth Parliament.” Residents interviewed on Friday implored authorities to intervene urgently to avert a health disaster.

Harare Water Department director Engineer Christopher Zvobgo said although the city continues to supply Chitungwiza, breakdowns at Prince Edward Water Treatment Plant hampered the smooth flow of supplies. “The water which goes to Chitungwiza comes from the Prince Edward Water Treatment Plant. It is shared among Chitungwiza, Manyame, Hatfield and the Airport area. Supplies are reduced due to losses along the way. “Sometimes we have to back-feed the water from Morton Jaffrey Water Works to Warren then to Letombo then back to Chitungwiza.

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