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Zinwa to cut supplies for one week
Susan Tokwe, The Sunday Mail (Zimbabwe)
January 13, 2008

http://www.sundaymail.co.zw/inside.aspx?sectid=694&cat=12

The Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) has announced that Harare and Chitungwiza residents will from tomorrow go without water supplies for a week following major electricity power cuts at the authority's Morton Jaffray Waterworks in the capital.

Zinwa general manager Mr Lisben Chipfunde told The Sunday Mail yesterday that intermittent power cuts experienced between Friday and early yesterday morning had seen the water treatment plant failing to process and pump water.

Mr Chipfunde acknowledged the great inconvenience the situation will have on residents. He, however, said the authority was working out measures to urgently restore supplies to the affected areas. Zesa Holdings officials could not be reached for comment last night.

"Harare and parts of Chitungwiza will this whole week experience a loss of water supplies due to problems beyond our control," said Mr Chipfunde. "We would, however, like to assure residents in the affected areas that we are doing all we can to address the situation. We are really concerned about the frequency of the power cuts, which are affecting our plant."

Mr Chipfunde said power went off at the water treatment plant at 9.55 pm on Friday. Supplies were, however, restored at around 11.40 pm before another power cut hit the plant at 1am.

Again, supplies were restored at 1.45am, but power went off at 7.15 am yesterday. Residents in and around Harare complained yesterday that they had spent the entire day without water flowing from their taps. Central Harare and most western suburbs, including Highfield, Glen Norah, Budiriro and Mufakose, were affected. Mr Chipfunde said the western suburbs would be the first to receive water after supplies are restored.

It will, however, take longer for areas such as Mabvuku and Tafara. Mr Chipfunde said it usually took a week for pumping to normalise in the event of an hour's power outage.

This translates into 10 hours without electricity, meaning the current situation may take longer to normalise, he said. Morton Jaffray has a capacity to produce 500 megalitres of water per day while Prince Edward sub-station produces 66 megalitres.

At the moment, Prince Edward is the only functional plant. Said Mr Chipfunde: "Prince Edward only produces about one tenth of the required water and will only feed a fraction of the Chitungwiza area.

"Unlike in situations of power cuts whereby everything returns to normal after reconnection, it takes a bit of time to reset the pumps and have them channelling water to the other pump stations."

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