Harare’s most populated suburbs such as Mbare, Sunningdale, Hatfield and Chitungwiza could soon face massive water crisis following a decision by the City of Harare to decommission Harava Dam which feed raw water supply into the Prince Edward Water Treatment Plant.
The council’s decision to shut-down the water treatment infrastructure comes after thorough assessments on the viability of keeping it running versus the current state of drying up, City of Harare said.
“Harava Dam that supplies raw water to the Prince Edward Water Treatment Plant is drying up. The dam is currently at 7 percent capacity. Treated water from the plant is supplied to Chitungwiza, Hatfield, Sunningdale and parts of Mbare. Council is decommissioning the water plant because there is no water to treat. The effects of the current drought.” wrote the Harare City Council on their official Facebook Page last night.
The destruction of the Harava Dam has been attributed to dry spells over the past decade which disturbed clear seasonal water supplies due to climate change. Siltation of rivers and other tributaries which feeds into the dam have also been the major cause of Harava Dam’s collapse.
Town Clerk Engineer Hosiah Chisango said the council has embarked on a water rationing exercise which will be strategically implemented to make sure the available water resources are shared equally amongst residents.
“The water rationing exercise has been been necessitated by the poor rain season we received this year. We realized that we now have high demand bigger than our actual capacity to supply hence forcing us to design a workable solution to sustain water supplies to our residents” he added.
