HARARE – Local Government Minister, Daniel Garwe says the government is looking for investors to take over the country’s dysfunctional urban water supply system targeting, most importantly, major cities such as Victoria Falls, Bulawayo and Harare.

Garwe said while speaking at a ministers and media session that they have been given the greenlight to privatise the provision of water within a battered system that has, for decades, struggled to provide constant supply of portable water to rate payers.

“We were given greenlight to privatise, we are now in the process of inviting the private sector players, both local and international, to bring proposals of interest,” Garwe said.

“We want somebody with the capacity to engineer, procure, construct, manage and finance.

“So far, we have received five, three from international players and two from local players.

“It’s work in progress and we are hoping by the end of next week, we will have interviewed them and identified the suitable candidates.”

Zimbabwe’s water supply system is still managed by local authorities that have been involved in the blame game with rate payers following the near collapse of once functional service delivery systems.

Rate payers accuse city fathers of continued failure to deliver smooth service while the councils blame residents for abandoning their civic duties to pay rates whenever they are required.

The government. likewise, has also been blamed for inconsistent policies that have seen the value of the money collected in terms of revenue whittled down by inflation.

Suppliers of essential material needed to keep the taps running have demanded hard cash for their products while councils collect a large portion of their revenue in local currency.

The outcome has been a battered water supply system that has seen some suburbs in major cities go for years without running water.

In his remarks, Minister Garwe set his sights to addressing Harare’s water crisis for end of January.

“We want by the end of this month, to make sure that we have dealt with issues of water in Harare,” he said

“We are not looking at a segmented approach, like what used to happen before but we are looking at an investor who comes and cover the whole value chain, from purification, distribution, billing and watering.

“We want to move away from the old meter system to a digital, smart water metering system.

“By the end of this month, or early February, you will see movements and we are not looking at Harare alone but all our cities.

“The priority areas are Harare, Bulawayo and Victoria Falls, since it is our capital city for tourism.”

The Minister said there were enough sources of water to cover the population growth.

“If we look at Harare, we have two dams that are going to be feeding Harare.

“Muchekeranwa will feed water into Ngwenimbe in Marondera, which will take water into Manyame River or Rufaro Dam, which comes all the way to Harare.

“It will then cover Melfort, as a smart city, Goromonzi, Ruwa, Mabvuku area and Zimre Park.

“We also have Kunzvi Dam, which is under construction, and will assist in the supply of water into Harare.

“It’s a matter of time before Harare’s water woes will be resolved but considering the water infrastructure in the country, we will not meet the demand.

“As we appoint investors, they will also upgrade the system to make sure we are not going to have water problems.

“We have problems with leakages, this system which is used in Africa, like Nigeria, and Algeria detects the leakages in the process.

“We want to use the model in all the cities.” Additional reporting by HMetro