The ManicaPost
Lovemore Kadzura
Rusape Correspondent
RUSAPE Town Council is losing nearly 50 percent of its treated water before it reaches consumers due to frequent bursts of its aging pipes that are failing to cope with the rising demand of the precious liquid.
To further compound the situation, the local authority is only pumping an average of 10-megaliters against the daily demand of 15-megalitres.
As if this is not enough, council only managed to collect 41 percent out of the water bills issued last year as the majority of water users defaulted payments.
With the power outages which also affect their two water treatment plants, Rusape Town Council can sometimes only pump for less than eight hours per day, a situation that is resulting in some areas going for weeks with dry taps.
Acting town secretary, Mr Togarepi Nerwande said on top of ageing infrastructure, power cuts and non-payment of bills, council is facing challenges of high electricity charges and exorbitant prices for water treatment chemicals.
Rusape uses at least three chemicals to treat its water.
“The daily water demand is 15-megalitres per day and we are pumping an average of 10-megalitres which might be less due to the prevailing load shedding. The 10-megalitres per day is the maximum design capacity for the two treatment plants.
“Non-revenue water is 46 percent and this is being caused by the ageing infrastructure which is bursting frequently. We are also facing challenges in the procurement of water treatment chemicals due to price variations from suppliers, unavailability on the local market and monopoly on some of the suppliers of critical chemicals. Electricity at our water works is billed as commercial, yet council does not make profit through selling water,” he said.
Mr Nerwande added: “We are having serious issues of non-payment of water bills by residents. The water collection efficiency of 2022 is as follows: industrial 15 percent, commercial 12 percent and residential 14 percent and this make water provision difficult for us.
“We have been sending notices and reminders for water users to pay up and very soon we will embark on water disconnections as the last resort.”
He said they are not yet considering prepaid water meters after noting challenges faced by fellow authorities who attempted to implement that.
“Council once attempted to install prepaid water meters in 2014 as a pilot project funded by a development partner, but unfortunately funds were not disbursed for the implementation.
“However, for the past seven years, the project was considered on our Capex implementation plan, of which some surveys were carried out and consultations with sister councils were also done.
“It has proved that those who implemented the project are going back to the original conventional meters due to technical challenges being experienced with prepaid water meters,” Mr Nerwande said.
