Chitown receives US$1m for sewer rehab

Ivan Zhakata Herald Correspondent
CHITUNGWIZA Municipality has received US$1,08 million from the African Development Bank to assist in the rehabilitation of its sewerage infrastructure.

The assistance is going to address the municipality’s perennial outfall and trunk sewer hotspots such as the Roundabout to Post Office Road, Hombarume, Rufaro and Dumukwa junction, Ruzvidzo and Chiratidzo roads, PaGomba, Zengeza and Seke areas.

The money will go towards the replacement, upgrading and re-routing of the outfall sewer along the new Chitungwiza highway; re-route and upgrade trunk sewers within Seke areas of Luciano and Gomba.

The municipality’s public relations officer Mr Lovemore Meya said the local authority was already a beneficiary of ZimFund’s Urgent Water Supply and Sanitation Rehabilitation project (UWSSRP) Phase I and Phase II.

Under the first phase of UWSSRP, the intervention included rehabilitation of Zengeza’s Conventional Sewage Treatment Works that has a capacity of 35 million litres a day, which saw four sets of sewage treatment ponds and five trickling filters being installed.

African Development Bank has been assisting us since our first phase so this is now a second phase which the bank is assisting us,” Mr Meya said.

“The money will also be used to reconnect the collector of the outflow sewers to prevent the frequent sewage spillages as a result of some houses constructed on top of the trunk sewers and small sewers due to new housing connections; supply of three-tonne utility vehicles in each of the three districts of Seke, Zengeza and St Mary’s to deal with blockages timely; provision of technical assistance; improvement of Sewer Inspection Technology including GIS software; operation and maintenance tools; construction of sewer manholes; and provision of Sanitation and Hygiene Education through the Chitungwiza Heath Department.”

Mr Meya said they were not receiving the money in cash but in the form of assistance.He said the project implementation is expected to start next month with a completion date set for December 2020, provided the COVID-19 pandemic does not interfere with delivery of materials and the implementation processes.
Mr Meya said it was anticipated that the bank’s intervention will bring back normalcy to residents’ livelihoods.