Gweru urgently needs US$18k to address city’s water crisis

Zim Now Writer

Gweru City Council urgently needs at least US$118 000 to improve the water supply situation in the city.

The local authority’s Acting town clerk, Livingston Churu, said the money will be used to repair broken pumps, buy new electric motors and service water reservoirs.

In a letter to Gweru Residents and Ratepayers Association director, Cornelia Selipiwe, Churu said the city was implementing several interventions aimed at improving the water supply situation in the Midlands local authority.

“However, the proposed measures are subject to the availability of funds,” he said.

Churu said servicing a damaged submersible pump at Amapongokwe water works, which would add nine mega-litres per day of raw water into the treatment plant, is estimated to cost   US$18 000.

The city also requires US$83 000 to buy new electric motors for Gwenoro high lift pumps.

Churu said that once all the measures are implemented, 17 mega-litres a day of treated water would be added to the city’s water supply.

A further US$4 000, the Acting town clerk said, was needed to service Pump No 9 at Gwenoro, whose bearings were worn out, while US$5 000 was needed to repair and commission the Kopje water reservoirs.

Already repair work on the 500kVA transformer at Range Booster pump station has been completed at a cost of US$8 000.

Churu added that the city’s water situation was being worsened by recurrent power outages and council had engaged power utility Zesa Holdings to reduce the hours of power cuts at the water treatment plants.

GRRA last month wrote to the council demanding immediate resolutions to the erratic water supplies that were affecting the city’s residents.

Currently, the existing water infrastructure in the Midlands capital has a treatment capacity of 66 mega-litres per day, but the city pumps an average 36 mega-litres a day due to the antiquated water infrastructure.