THE struggling Harare City Council has once again dramatically reduced water treatment due to shortages of a key water treatment chemicals and residents should brace for even worse water rationing.
Council keeps low stocks of chemicals, sometimes just enough for a few hours, and its major supplier of aluminium sulphate has had a factory breakdown whose repair was supposed to have been completed by last Saturday.
Harare City Council, which is probably the worst run council in the country, is continuously slashing water output over lack of maintenance and supply problems caused by running out of money to buy chemicals.
Aluminium sulphate is a major treatment chemical, which coagulates and precipitates the filth in the water before other chemicals work on what is then, at least clear water.
Harare's major water treatment plant, Morton Jaffary, has a capacity of about 700 mega litres a day, but it has been running at less than half that capacity for several years.
Now it is even worse.
In a statement last week, council conceded that the reduction in water supply across the city had been caused by its failure to procure enough aluminium sulphate.
"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 2000hrs yesterday (Thursday)," council said.
"This means that we will be running out of the product and ceasing operations around midnight today (Friday). Currently, one pump is running to Warren Control and one to Lonchinvar, which means that the supply level is almost insignificant and all parts of the city will be affected.
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"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 in the course of that day. Granular aluminium is only expected to start arriving in the country from Monday 13 February 2023."
Council said efforts were underway to seek an alternative delivery sooner to cut the length of the shutdown.
Service delivery has plunged in almost all urban councils run by the CCC as most of the officials are incompetent and focus on looting whatever resources that remain.
With harmonised elections expected sometime this year, there are growing calls on urban voters to use their minds, not hearts, in selecting representatives so that proper service delivery could be revived.
Zanu PF, led by President Mnangagwa, has demonstrated in the last five years that it can turn around the situation across the country.
Some urban roads that were in a sorry state have been given a new lease of life by the Second Republic and expectations are that if Zanu PF councillors are given a chance to run the affairs of all urban councils, the situation could change dramatically.
Rural councils run by Zanu PF have dramatically improved their services, taking advantage of devolution funds.
Roads have been rehabilitated while additional schools or classroom blocks have been constructed, together with clinics.
