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Midlands Reporter
GWERU City Council has applied to the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing for borrowing powers to secure a $115 million loan facility from China Geo Engineering Corporation to be channelled towards water and sewer infrastructure rehabilitation programmes.
Town clerk Ms Elizabeth Gwatipedza confirmed the development in an interview yesterday. “Yes, I can confirm that Gweru City Council has applied to the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing for borrowing powers to secure a $115 million loan facility from China Geo Engineering Corporation for water and sewer reticulation rehabilitation programmes they wish to undertake to improve service delivery in the local authority,” she said.
Ms Gwatipedza said there was an urgent need for the water and sewer infrastructure rehabilitation to curb recurrent water and sewer pipe bursts. She said the whole water and sewer network was old and needed to be rehabilitated to improve service delivery.
Only a few days ago, the city went for days without potable water after a water pipe burst near Gwenhoro water supply dam. At the same time sewage pipes are also bursting, resulting in seepage which has been blamed for typhoid and cholera cases experienced last year which left about eight residents dead with over 2000 requiring medical assistance. “We can only overcome these problems once we rehabilitate our old infrastructure,” said Mrs Gwatipedza.
“We are facing challenges here and there because our infrastructure is very old and needs total replacement.”
Ms Gwatipedza said they were yet to receive a response from the Government.
“I don’t know when we will be given the borrowing powers from the Local Government, it is still work in progress,” she said.
Ms Gwatipedza said the local authority is in the process of rehabilitating major public service roads across the city and urged motorists to stop using such roads.
“Council has observed that our beloved motorists are removing barricades on the roads and using them before completion,” she said. “Council has observed that motorists are also ignoring clearly marked informative signage thereby risking the lives of their passengers.”
Online Reporter