By Felix Matasva
Mutare is facing an interruption in water supply across the city as council is reinstalling the valves that were being repaired for the past three weeks.
This was confirmed in a public notice by City of Mutare acting town clerk, Blessing Chafesuka.
“The City of Mutare would like to inform customers and stakeholders that there might be water supply interruption city-wide from December 19 to December 24 to allow the city engineers to reinstall valves that were under major repairs and maintenance for the past three weeks.
“The Christmas Pass reservoir site is the main distribution reservoir for the city, feeding the rest of the city’s service reservoirs. The works will require shutting down the 700mm bulk transmission line, the largest of the three Clearwater transmission lines from Odzani Water Treatment Plant,” Chafesuka said.
He underlined that the city will maintain its service reservoir levels above critical to minimize low pressure incidents and the impact of water shortages.
Chafesuka added: “The process will reduce the amount of inflows into the city’s reservoirs. There are also four water bowsers to assist customers in cases where the reservoirs cannot meet demand, especially in high-lying areas.”
He urged stakeholders and residents to conserve the precious liquid while using it sparingly during this period.
Last month most surburbs ran dry with some residents going for two weeks without water dripping out of their taps.
Council attributed the interrupted water supplies to a technical fault at some of its reservoirs.
It added that the technical fault was caused by heavy rains received in Mutasa district, where Odzani Water Treatment Plant is situated.
Speaking to Orbit Youth International at the height of the water crisis, Mutare Residents and Ratepayers Association (MURRA) programmes coordinator, David Mutambirwa, rapped Mutare engineering department for a snail’s pace in addressing the city-wide water woes.
“The serious and persistent water outages grappling the city of Mutare clearly depicts failure of a noble personality under the taste of action.
“It clearly shows lack of deligence and preparedness on the technical side of the City,” Mutambirwa fumed.
After a storm on social media pertaining the water shortages, the local authority released a statement informing residents that it had contracted an engineering firm to repair some valves which were in disrepair.