Govt directs water authority not to increase prices

Water authority directed not to increase prices

THE ZIMBABWE cabinet has directed the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) to stop hiking all water tariffs until after the presidential election run-off whose date is yet to be announced.

This emerged last week during a salary and wages bargain meeting between the water utility’s workers’ representatives and management held in Harare over the weekend.

“During the meeting management made it clear to us that they cannot effect any reasonable increment because ZINWA has been directed by cabinet not to increase tariffs until the elections are over,’ said one of the workers representatives who attended the meeting.

The lowest paid employee earns Z$250 million per month but the workers are demanding Z$25 billion for the lowest paid worker.

“We reached a deadlock with the management because they said they are prepared to pay ZW$1 billion for the lowest paid employee which we can not accept. They agued that the current tariffs have become uneconomic and they do not have money to pay workers,” said a workers’ representative who attended the meeting.

Sources said that ZINWA had proposed to government to charge Z$700 million per cubic metre from the current Z$50 million.

This is not the first time that the government has directed ZINWA not to increase tariffs.

Last year the government had to reverse a decision by ZINWA to increase water charges by 1 000 percent, while the Harare City Council had added a surcharge of 50 percent to cater for handling costs.

The reversal came after ratepayers and industrialists complained that the move not only caught them unawares, but was un-economic.

The Minister of State for Water Resources and Infrastructure Development Munacho Mutezo could not be reached for comment.