Harare City Council says it is not able to raise the money required to procure chemicals for water treatment to supply enough water to residents.
The city revealed that it requires $35 million for chemicals per month but is only able to raise $15 million.
Environment Management committee chairperson councillor Kudzai Kadzombe on Wednesday said the council is only able to provide on average 300 megalitres against the demand of 1 200 megalitres. She said:
Our water is heavily polluted hence very costly to treat. We now require in excess of $35 million every month to treat water against a global revenue collection averaging $15 million.
In short, our collections are not anywhere near levels to satisfy our water treatment bill. Our various customers owe the city nearly $1 billion.
We are also working with DDF to drill boreholes in Glen View. We are aware that because we are in a drought season even the boreholes that we are drilling may soon dry up as well because the water table is now stressed.