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The decision to close Government departments, educational institutions and businesses in Gwanda Town is uncalled for because it defeats all logic.

The Zimbabwe National Water Authority reduced water supplies to the mining town over a $10 million debt which Gwanda Municipality is disputing. Council acknowledges a debt of $3 million, hence the impasse.

After a meeting held at the council chambers on Tuesday, stakeholders resolved to close institutions, Government departments and businesses because the environment, they claimed, was no longer conducive to continue operating. The stakeholders noted that big institutions such as the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Polytechnic College with a huge population of students, schools, clinics, hospitals and businesses had been operating without adequate running water for more than two months. This, the stakeholders said, was a time bomb and as such the only alternative was to shut down until the issue of water supplies is resolved.

Zinwa has however dismissed as untrue claims that it has cut water supplies to the mining town but acknowledged reducing supplies.

It said yesterday that it was supplying the town for just 12 hours a day despite the fact that council is not paying for the water. The water authority said it has put in place a dedicated line servicing the provincial hospital as a way of ensuring continuous supplies to critical institutions.

What is not in dispute is that there is an impasse between Gwanda council and Zinwa which has forced Zinwa to reduce water supplies and not cut supplies as is alleged by stakeholders. It is therefore important that the two parties find each other to stop the suffering of innocent residents of Gwanda.

It is unfortunate that stakeholders decided to politicise the situation in order to whip up residents’ emotions instead of engaging Zinwa to find a lasting solution. Council, like other local authorities, has an obligation to pay for water and should therefore come up with a payment plan to clear its arrears.

Gwanda Municipality, as we said in the past, has proposed to take over the treatment of water from Zinwa so that it pays the water authority for raw water. This is the arrangement between Zinwa and municipalities such as Bulawayo, Harare, Gweru and Kwekwe.

Gwanda Municipality has indicated that it has the capacity to treat its own water which it says it will supply to residents cheaper compared to the present arrangement. The Secretary for Local Government, Public Works and National Housing, Engineer George Mlilo has said he fully supports the idea of Zinwa surrendering the responsibility of treating water to Gwanda Council given that the local authority has the capacity to do so.

We appealed to Government a month ago to urgently resolve the impasse between Gwanda Municipality and Zinwa before the situation got out of hand. The closure of businesses and institutions in our view is  not the solution and such a negative approach to challenges should be frowned at.

Stakeholders should be wary of playing into the hands of the country’s detractors.

The Ministers of Environment, Water and Climate, Cde Oppah Muchinguri- Kashiri and her counterpart, Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Cde Saviour Kasukuwere, we are told, are seized with the Gwanda issue.

Cabinet has already agreed that Gwanda takes over the water reticulation system hence a seven- member commission of inquiry has been appointed to assess the Gwanda and Beitbridge town councils’ capacity to take over water and waste water management from Zinwa.

The commission will facilitate the smooth take over of the system so one of the outstanding issues regarding supply of water to residents has been resolved.