Lake Chivero, Harare’s main water source, is now 100 percent full, recovering from a 25 year low and boosting the capital city’s water supplies, Mayor Bernard Manyenyeni announced today.
Greater Harare’s nearly 2 million residents and businesses require 800 megalitres of water daily, but is currently meeting half that demand due to a combination of low dam levels, broken pumps and pipeline infrastructure as well as lack of cash to procure treatment chemicals.
The capital’s water woes have adversely affected households and industry.
“One hundred percent – our major water supply dam, Lake Chivero, started spilling today at 8 am,” Manyenyeni said in a Facebook post.
“The lake was recovering from a 25-year low and is rising. Our raw water quality will improve so so much with the inflows and outflows.”
The capital is the epicentre of a typhoid outbreak, largely blamed on unsanitary conditions and inadequate clean water, with 76 percent of total cases recorded since October last year. Harare has reported 126 suspected typhoid cases, 12 confirmed ones and 2 deaths, according to a health ministry update.
Harare is currently implementing a $144 million Chinese-funded upgrade of its water system.-The Source
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