Harare faces serious water shortages
By GETRUDE GUMEDE, Published: Wednesday January 13, 2010 ZIMBABWE – HARARE – WATER supplies for Harare and surrounding satellite towns could be cut by 15 percent following the imminent temporary shutdown of Prince Edward Water Treatment Plant until the Manyame River starts flowing. Harare City Council might be forced to close Prince Edward Water Treatment Plant after preliminary assessments showed the two dams — Harava and Seke — that supply the plant have 40 days of water supply left. The two small dams are there to tide the city through a few months of the driest seasons. The plant relies mainly on continued flow in the Manyame River, normally a perennial river. Run-off in the upper Manyame catchment has been delayed in recent decades because of the very large number of farm dams on the river’s tributaries. The plant’s daily output of 66 megalitres is normally earmarked for Chitungwiza, Mabvuku, Tafara, Manressa, Harare International Airport, Msasa and parts of Hatfield, among other southern and eastern suburbs, since it is at a higher altitude than Lake Chivero and is closer to these areas which makes pumping easier. The city can pump water from the far larger Morton Jaffray plant to these higher eastern areas via the pipeline linking Letombo reservoirs to the western pump stations but will have to cut back supplies in western and central areas to do so. Zinwa’s state of the major dams’ report released on Monday confirmed the city’s fears. Seke Dam is 34,1 percent full while Harava Dam is 38,2 percent full. However, the other dams that supply Harare water — Chivero and Manyame — are 99,6 and 84,2 percent full respectively. These two dams are not only far larger than the two upstream dams but with Morton Jaffray Waterworks are part of a system that uses the annual floodwaters in the Manyame to supply the city throughout the year. The two large dams also receive the processed effluent from the modern sewage treatment works, in effect allowing considerable recycling. While the two little dams contain only three months supply, even at the far smaller Prince Edward works, the two large dams can keep Morton Jaffray going for at least two years with-out inflows. None of the city dams is spilling yet as a result of the low rainfall recorded to date. A Harare water official confirmed yesterday that the two small dams had 40 days supply of water remaining between them. Should the plant be closed, it means the city’s water supply would have been reduced by about 15 percent, which implies tighter rationing for consumers. …
