Chitown allocates ZWL$3,4bn for sewer rehab

Sewer bursts have been one of Chitungwiza's long-running challenges

Zim Now Writer

Chitungwiza Municipality finance committee chairperson Councillor Fungayi Magadzire has said council has put ZWL$2,4 billion towards its sewer rehabilitation programme for 2023.

This comes as Chitunmwiza has been battling sewer problems for many years.

Presenting the 2023 budget report to a full council meeting recently, Cllr Magadzire said: “In order to achieve our vision, we have budgeted US$3 million towards rehabilitation of our sewerage infrastructure that has collapsed in hot spot areas,” he said.

The hotspot areas include Zengeza 4 (Gomba), Tilcor, St Mary’s Pump Station 2 to Pump Station 3, St Mary’s Trunk line, Zengeza outfall, Unit C, Jambanja and Upper Seke outfall.

According to Cllr Magadzire, council failed to rehabilitate all the targeted areas last year because of fluctuation in prices.

“Effort is being made to ensure there is recapitalisation of all facets of service delivery. In 2022, we embarked on a sewer rehabilitation project for Unit C. However, the project could not be completed due to forward pricing materials,” he said.

Chitungwiza and Manyame Rural Residents Association secretary Brighton Mazhindu said: “We are hoping that if the money together with African Development Bank’s ZimFund will be able to alleviate the perennial sewer problems in the town although the US$3,4 million is dependent on the budget performance and plugging of revenue leaks at the municipality,” said.

In 2021, council received US$1,787 million under the African Development Bank’s ZimFund for sewage reticulation as part of the urgent water supply and sanitation rehabilitation project phase I and phase II.

It then received 300mm diameter pipes, a backhoe loader and a skid steer loader from AfDB in March last year.

Chitungwiza Residents Trust director Alice Kuveya slammed council for its failure to appoint a substantive engineer responsible for overseeing all council projects.

“We know that materials donated last year by AfDB to fix sewer problems were lying idle because the council does not have an engineer,” she said, accusing the management not to care about the challenges because they do not live in the town.