Blessings Chidakwa Municipal Correspondent
The Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) has decentralised from the catchment based system it has been using to opening up 21 service centres across the country that have billing and workshop facilities.

The move is meant to improve service delivery and bring enhanced convenience to clients. Zinwa has been running 534 water supply stations from its seven catchment offices in Harare, Bulawayo, Gweru, Masvingo and Mutare.

In a statement, Zinwa corporate communications and marketing manager Mrs Marjorie Munyonga said prior to the decentralisation they had been using the catchment based system since inception in 2000.

“The introduction of service centres is in response to concerns raised by stakeholders and clients that through the catchment system, Zinwa’s services were located far away from the people the authority was serving,” she said.

“This development is also in line with the Government’s new thrust of devolution. Zinwa also carried out some benchmarking exercises with other water utilities in the region and beyond, which also revealed the need for the authority to be closer to the people it served.”

Mrs Munyonga said under this new system, a service centre would cluster stations within the vicinity of each other to be run and managed as a unit regardless of the existing catchment boundaries.

“A service area team leader will be responsible for running a service centre,” she said.

“Services, which used to be centralised at catchment offices such as billing and workshops will now be decentralised at the service centres, which will help clients access them easily and conveniently.

“This new development is also expected to significantly reduce Zinwa’s operational costs and improve efficiency, as workshop teams based at the service centres will now be able to timely reduce their response time to breakdowns and planned maintenance.”

The 21 service centres, which are already operational, are Harare (all Zinwa water supply stations within the 60 kilometre radius of Harare).