Power and water cuts worsen as ZESA tells residents it’s broke

By Lance Guma
14 May 2007

Residents in several towns are having to go for over 4 days without water as power cuts begin to take their toll on the ability of local authorities to pump water into homes. Residents in Kadoma who spoke to Newsreel say they have stopped using their toilets and are using nearby bushes. This has inevitably increased the risk of diseases such as cholera. Desperate residents are walking several kilometres to the West View low-density suburb to get water in drums, containers or anything they can use. Adding to the mix are reports from the Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) that power utility ZESA ordered six families in Harare’s Highfields suburb to purchase their own electricity cables to replace the ones stolen at their homes. ZESA officials say the company is broke and cannot afford to replace stolen cables.

The families have been without electricity since the end of April and would need at least Z$15 million to buy new cables. CHRA say the houses affected are from 3107 to 3112 along 23rd street in the suburb. The residents went to the ZESA offices in Birmingham Street and were shocked to be given a list of things to buy. The list included items like insulation tape, joining kits and cables. CHRA says, ‘It is not the residents fault that ZESA is broke. Residents have been paying exorbitant rates to the power utility and they demand corresponding services. Most residents have not been receiving their bills from the power utility but are still being penalised for not paying on time.’

A crippling foreign currency shortage has meant that ZESA cannot import adequate amounts of electricity from neighbouring countries and is also not able to buy spares for servicing its own equipment. To get over the problem they have been implementing haphazard power cuts. This has meant water pumps in the major cities are not able to pump adequate supplies of water. The situation is also complicated by the difficulty of importing chemicals for water treatment and the servicing of water pumping machines, again because of foreign currency shortages. Analysts say as long as Mugabe’s regime continues to implement bad political decisions, combined with rampant unchecked corruption, the economy will continue to suffer and the problems will not go away.