GWERU mayor Josiah Makombe has revealed that the city will soon introduce water shedding that will see most suburbs, particularly those in the western areas, going for days without water as council grapples to normalise water supplies to all parts of the Midlands capital.
BY STEPHEN CHADENGA
Makombe said council was failing to supply water to all suburbs because of low pumping capacity as a result of a shortage of pumps at the main dam supplier, Gwenoro.
“Our engineering department is working on modalities and very soon we will introduce water shedding to ensure that all suburbs receive water,” Makombe said during a Press briefing last week.
“Once we introduce this rationing scheme, it means suburbs will get water on different days until we normalise supplies to all parts of the city. We have some suburbs like Mkoba 15 and 19, which have gone for nine to 10 years without getting tap water, hence the need to share what is there.”
Meanwhile, Makombe said council would not set aside in the 2019 budget money specifically for the purchase of vehicles for its directors.
There have been reports that council put aside $660 000 in next year’s budget to buy top-of-the-range four-wheel drive cars for its six top executives. “I want to put it on record that there is no council document that indicates we have budgeted $660 000 for the purchase of vehicles for our directors,” he said.
“Although contracts of our directors show that they are entitled to vehicles, it’s not our top priority for now. We want to ensure that as a city, we improve on service delivery and water reaches all our people. We will never buy four vehicles at one go, but maybe one per each budget year when our situation improves.”
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Makombe said the issue could have been discussed in various thematic committees (that include all stakeholders like residents representatives, the business community and academics, among others) involved in the formulation of the 2019 budget, but that did not make it an official council resolution.
He reiterated that as a ceremonial mayor, he did not need any personal vehicle from council.
He urged residents to come up with payment plans for outstanding bills to expedite service provision.
