BY SILAS NKALA THE Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) has revealed that it is currently owed over $1,9 billion in unpaid bills by government ministries, local authorities, irrigation schemes, domestic clients, agricultural estates, schools, industry and parastatals throughout the country. Zinwa spokesperson Marjorie Munyonga told NewsDay that this had crippled service delivery. A few weeks ago, Zinwa was blasted for failing to employ rainwater harvesting techniques for domestic, irrigation and other uses following the heavy rains that hit the country. Munyonga said as of February 28, 2021, various clients owed Zinwa $1 994 255 672 in unpaid bills. “Of this amount, local authorities owed Zinwa $412 634 655, with irrigators accounting for $236 973 445. Zinwa’s domestic clients in growth points, small towns and rural service centres served by the authority’s 534 water supply stations also owed $240 959 994, agricultural estates owed $33 602 264 and schools owed the authority $40 795 587,” she said. “Industry owed $11 428 409, churches $4 711 435, while fellow parastatals owed $55 540 385. Government ministries and departments account for the largest part of the debt at $838 269 952.” Munyonga said the revenue derived from the water bills enabled Zinwa to procure water treatment chemicals, carry out maintenance work at water treatment plants, repair and maintain dams, pay energy costs and statutory obligations such as taxes and levies. She said Zinwa had since instituted a raft of measures to recover the money, including taking legal action against defaulters, client engagements and installation of prepaid water meters for all new water connections so that new clients do not accrue debts. “Zinwa is also currently conducting a revenue collection blitz in all its 20 service centres while litigation is also being instituted against some of these defaulting clients,” Munyonga said. She appealed to all clients that were in default to ensure that they settled their bills or submitted payment plans for the resolution of their debts. Critics argue that Zinwa should employ rainwater harvesting techniques to spare some districts of their water challenges as most dams were spilling and water was being wasted. Munyonga recently said the spilling of dams was “something normal” and “expected”, adding that it did not translate to water losses. Treasury in its 2021 budget allocated Zinwa in excess of $10 billion for the construction of dams across the country. Follow Silas on Twitter @silasnkala

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