Unicef says it plans on providing a month's supply of watertreatmentchemicals for the capital Harare where water supply has been cut off because the government of Robert Mugabe is unable to buy chemicals needed to clean tap water.
The Great Lakes chemical corporation, formerly known as Octel, has been in the town for 50 years, and is one of the world's leading producer of certain speciality chemicals for applications like watertreatment.
This should not cause problems for public water companies, which already have monitoring and treatment processes to deal with any organisms or chemicals in their supplies.