Mayor Muchadeyi Masunda last week told a council meeting that Zetachem was doing a trial run at Morton Jaffray Water Treatment Plant.
“Zetachem, which is part of the Omnia Group, is among the largest suppliers of water treatment chemicals in South Africa,” Masunda said. “They use innovative and modern techniques which have the potential of significantly reducing our water bill.”
If the trial run is successful, council would give the company an opportunity at the next tender for the supply of that particular type of water treatment.Masunda said the deal would also see the council’s monthly water chemicals bill reduced from between US$2 million and US$3 million to below US$2 million. This would give council extra money to spend on service delivery.
Masunda said the move would also reduce the current cocktail of between eight and 10 water chemicals to just four.
If successful, the deal will also result in clean water for Harare which has been grappling with water-borne diseases since 2008 blamed largely on contaminated water.
Two deaths have been reported following a typhoid outbreak which started in October 2011, while over 2 800 people have presented typhoid symptoms at various clinics.
City health director Prosper Chonzi said he feared the typhoid outbreak may spread to other parts of Harare because the environment was not conducive for total control of the disease.
“The cases being attended to at our clinics have dropped from 70 to 20 per day,” Chonzi said. “This includes both suspected and confirmed cases. But despite the reduction, our worry is that the disease can spread to other parts of the city because the environment remains unconducive.”
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Water supply remains erratic, sewer bursts are still common while refuse collection is not being done on a regular basis. Chonzi said Epworth and Chitungwiza are some of the areas at high risk due to poor supply of water.
“The Kunzvi and Musami Dams projects, together with the Mazowe one, are the ones which will enable us to effectively deal with the situation.”
