The Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) is faced with ‘crippling’ financial challenges as it struggles to buy water treatment chemicals for its water supply stations in Matabeleland South province.
This comes at a time when the ZINWA Umzingwane catchment says it is now left with a limited stock of water treatment chemicals as it struggles to honour its financial commitment to a local supplier, Chemplex.
This was confirmed by ZINWA’s Gwanda centre team leader, Nyararai Nyoni when she presented a report before the Matabeleland South Provincial Water and Sanitation Committee in Gwanda this Thursday.
“Ever since we raised our tariff, there has been some sort of resistance from our customers to pay the new tariff so that has negatively affected us in terms of our cash flow. We want to embark on an exercise to encourage our customers to pay so that we can be able to sustain ourselves as well,” said Nyoni.
In a statement, ZINWA Corporate Communications Officer, Tsungirirai Shoriwa said as of November 30 last year, various clients owed ZINWA Mzingwane Catchment over millions.
On the state of dams levels in the province, it was revealed they are currently low at an average of 41.6 percent.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health and Child Care has reported several diarrheal cases due to water challenges.
“We have not had any cases of Cholera or Typhoid but there are several diarrheal cases that we are worried about particularly in areas with low sanitation coverage such as Beitbridge and Plumtree.”
Input on the water and sanitation status of the province also came from the municipality of Gwanda, the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, among other stakeholders.
The provincial outlook will be presented at the emergency sanitation action group all stakeholders meeting scheduled for Harare on Tuesday next week.
