City of Harare forced to shut down Prince Edward water treatment plant

The Harare City Council (HCC) has shut down one of its treatment plants, Prince Edward, owing to depleted raw water in two of its supply dams Harava and Seke.

The City of Harare has two Water Treatment Works, Morton Jaffray just below Lake Chivero and Prince Edward near Chitungwiza.

Morton Jaffray, the major plant with an installed capacity of producing 600 million litres per day against the city’s demand of 1 200 million litres per day, is supplied by Lake Chivero and Lake Manyame whilst Prince Edward gets water from Harava and Seke Dams.

When operating, Prince Edward Treatment Works would just add an extra 70 million litres.

In an update the council said the Prince Edward water treatment plant was shut down on Saturday due to depleted raw water in its two supply dams.

“The two dams are at 13.7 percent(≈ 925 ML) and 13.5 percent (≈ 516 ML) full, and as a result the water level in Seke is now below the abstraction level.

“Although the upstream dams of Dema 1 and Dema 2 were opened on 21/11/23, no significant inflows have been recorded,” it said.

The HCC said most of the southern suburbs supplied from Prince Edward water treatment plant are being affected by the closure of the plant.

Areas affected by the closure include Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport, Cranborne, Hatfield, parts of Chitungwiza, Mbare, Sunningdale and Graniteside.

“However, some supplies are being received from Morton Jeffrey (water treatment plant) through the inter – connector at George Road and Seke Road,” said HCC.

The closure of Prince Edward treatment plant comes at a time when the country is yet to receive the summer rains and the water situation in the city is expected to worsen.

The City of Harare has been experiencing water problems of varying gravity over the last fifteen years with the main causes being recurrent shortages of treatment chemicals, regular plant breakdowns and power cuts.

Some suburbs like Mabvuku and Tafara have gone for years without a reticulated water supply while most parts of Chitungwiza have gone for weeks on end without water supplies.

This has seen the city constantly experiencing outbreaks of water borne diseases such as cholera, which the local authority is currently battling to contain. New Ziana