Harare Faces Water Supply Shutdown

Residents of Harare are set to go without water supplies following an announcement by the City Fathers that production of the precious liquid will be shut down due to shortage of chemicals.

Harare City Council (HCC) made the announcement Friday stating that they had been hit by a shortage of Aluminium Sulphate following a breakdown at their supplier.

This follows the recent decommissioning of several boreholes around the city that produced water contaminated with faecal matter, raising fears of an outbreak of waterborne diseases.

“The City would like to notify you that due to critically low stocks of aluminium sulphate, water production has been reduced to stretch valuable stocks from 20 hours of operation to 30 hours from 8pm yesterday.

This means that we will be running out of the product and ceasing operations around midnight today.”

“Our supplier of liquid aluminium sulphate has suffered a breakdown at their manufacturing plant which they hope will be repaired by Saturday morning and will resume deliveries later during the course of the day,” reads the statement.

HCC said all parts of the city will be affected as one pump is running to Warren Control and another to Lonchinvar rendering supply levels insignificant.

However, the City Fathers expect a delivery of granular aluminium into the country from Monday while efforts are underway to seek an alternative delivery sooner to cut the length of the shutdown. Nhau/Indaba