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Conrad Mupesa Mashonaland West Bureau
CHEGUTU Municipality has started repairing a piped water system in Ward 8 using material procured through the devolution funds to help end at least four years of dry taps.
The council through the advice from environment and health officials, blocked water pipes servicing the Ward in 2018 following a cholera outbreak that ravaged the town’s oldest suburbs of Pfupajena and Kaguvi, exposing water and sewer system contamination.
The cholera outbreak resulted in the death of at least four residents with the government through Ministry of Health and Child Care and Chegutu Rural District Council, supported by UNICEF and WHO stepping up efforts to eliminate the disease by vaccinating 54 407 people in 2020.
The campaign was carried out as a preventive measure aimed at reducing the risk of an outbreak in the cholera-prone area.
The Municipality of Chegutu has budgeted at least $3million from its annual Devolution Funds to further thwart any outbreaks by upgrading the water system in the ward.
Council spokesperson, Mr Brian Nkiwane, said the new pipelines purchased using Devolution Funds have been delivered for installation.
“We expect to have finished the installation within the next three weeks.
“We are putting a new water system altogether, as the old one had been blocked in 2018 following a cholera outbreak. Residents have been surviving on boreholes drilled across the ward with the help of the Government and non-governmental organisations. Expected total budget for the project is $3 million which is a fraction of our allocation,” he said.
Stephen Kandodo from the town lauded the decision by the council to revamp the water system providing the precious liquid to Ward 8.
“We are grateful to the Devolution Funds as our council has been failing to address the water challenges that were bedevilling Ward 8 residents. We have been with dry taps for over four years after the pipes were condemned,” he said.
The steel pipes had served their time, spanning over 70 years, with the council blamed for neglecting the situation before it became dire, threatening the lives of over 50 000 residents.
Chegutu is one of the country’s oldest urban settlements, with the town’s management board having been constituted in 1942.
Online Reporter