THE government is working with local authorities across Zimbabwe to ensure that the water challenges being experienced in the country are resolved, a Cabinet minister has said.
Responding to questions from legislators last week, leader of government business in Parliament and Justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi said councils had been struggling to resolve the water challenges.
He said the struggles by local authorities had forced the government to work with them.
“What has happened over the years is that our urban local authorities have been failing to do that. What government is now doing is getting in to work with the local authorities with a view of ensuring that we solve the water problem.
“Cabinet agreed that we will start with Bulawayo and ensure that we solve the water problem in Bulawayo first and we concentrate there and pool our resources to ensure that it is done in one area then we move to the other,” Ziyambi said.
He said the government had noticed that the water reticulation system in Bulawayo was archaic making rehabilitation a nightmare.
“So the thrust now is to ensure that we improve the water reticulation system, have stand-alone treatment sites at particular locations rather than having one bulk water treatment system whereby we have noticed that we have so many leakages along the conveyancing line to particular households.
“So, government, indeed, acknowledges that the majority of our local authorities in urban areas have failed and we are coming now with a plan to ensure that we help the local authorities tasked with ensuring that there is potable water availability within urban local authorities,” Ziyambi said.
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