MOUNDS of earth, rubble, deep trenches and old water pipes have become a common sight on roadsides in the Harare central business district (CBD). It is no longer unusual to come across tractors or earth moving equipment right at the heart of the capital.

A few weeks ago, the City of Harare embarked on a programme to replace old water pipes in the CBD.

The programme started at a fast pace, but progress seem to be slowing down along the way.

This has raised concerns that the project may not be completed before the beginning of the rainy season, plunging the city into a serious crisis.

The fears have been worsened by the recent outbreak of cholera in some parts of the country.

The water-borne disease that killed 4 300 between last August and early this year has re-surfaced.

Harare was the epicentre of the last epidemic and authorities blamed it on the ageing water infrastructure that saw some parts of the city going without water for months.

But in an interview, Harare mayor Muchadeyi Masunda said they were "on top of the situation".

"It (the refurbishment exercise) is taking a bit longer than it should," Masunda said.

"(This is because) when we dig up and replace the pipes, we need to properly compact the dug area.

"In some areas, this has already been done. The important thing for us is to reduce, if not eliminate completely, the amount of treated water going to waste through leakages."

Although only joints in the old pipes needed repairing, Masunda said they decided to replace even the pipes, thus prolonging the process.

"The pipes themselves are not too bad," he said. "The problem is with the joints, they are magnetised and now worn out. In a normal situation, we would replace only the joints, but we have decided to replace even the pipes."

When chemicals, power and all other essential requirements are available, the city's two water treatment plants -- Morton Jaffray and Prince Edward --have the capacity to pump out a combined 714 megalitres of water a day.

However at the moment, they are only pumping out not more than 600 megalitres due to erratic supply of chemicals and power.

According to Masunda, 40% of the treated water is lost through leakages, which means that only less than 400 megalitres is relayed through to the domestic and industrial users.

The demand for water in Harare and surrounding towns of Chitungwiza, Ruwa and Norton currently stands at 1 000 mega litres a day.

"At the moment we have to introduce a rigorous demand management, we are just trying to manage this limited resource.

"Once we have reduced these leakages, we expect the situation to improve significantly, and get water to all parts of the city," he said.

But Harare residents are not amused at the snail pace the refurbishments are moving and the continued erratic supplies.

"If the rains start anytime now, what will happen to all these trenches?

"We will obviously have ditches all over, and the consequences of that will be much worse than we have been through," said Clement Mutumwa, a vendor near the Angwa City complex.

Combined Harare Residents' Association (CHRA) chairperson, Simbarashe Moyo said while refurbishing the water pipes was a good idea, the current initiative had not brought about any improvements for residents.

"We are seeing all this digging in town, we acknowledge their efforts to replace the pipes," said Moyo, "but honestly that is not transforming to a normal provision of water at the moment.

"We were hoping the digging would change the situation, but that has not happened."

Instead of focusing a lot on pipes in the CBD, Moyo said the council should have prioritised increasing the pumping capacity of Morton Jaffray and Prince Edward.

"Our solutions must go beyond just digging in town. They must address the root cause of the problem. Issues of pollution should be addressed.

"The reason why we have to spend so much on water chemicals is because not much is being done to contain pollution."

Masunda argued that solving issues of pollution was not a responsibility for the City Fathers alone.

He said: "People have to do their bit as well. They have to help by not polluting the system. They can do this by not throwing litter all over and by properly disposing of sewage. If we are able to treat the sewage, we will reduce the amount of chemicals we use."

High levels of pollution have forced the council "to procure a cocktail of between eight and nine chemicals to treat the water".

Substantial amounts of raw sewage and industrial waste flow into the city's supply dams.