Chronicle Editor
Blessings Chidakwa Midlands Bureau
Gweru City Council is set to double its water pumping capacity from 60 mega litres per day to at least 120 mega litres, as it has emerged that its installed capacity is being outweighed by the increasing water demand. Town Clerk Ms Elizabeth Gwatipedza yesterday told a full council meeting that demand for water was now above the current 60 mega litres capacity per day.
“Even the current installed 60 mega litres capacity per day at Gwenhoro Dam is now being outweighed by the increasing number of households,” she said. “Currently, the city is pumping 50 mega litres per day.”
Ms Gwatipedza said the local authority was now proposing a levy to charge private property land developers a nominal fee to be used to increase the pumping capacity. Gweru mayor Councillor Charles Chikozho, speaking in the same meeting, said private land developers should be levied so that the local authority could hasten the facilitation of upgrading the water capacity to 120 mega litres.
“Our city is growing fast, new suburbs are mushrooming at a rapid speed and there are private land developers in areas like Hertfordshire and Heritage who want to be connected to the existing 60 mega litres water capacity, which is not even sufficient to the current households,” he said.
“The pumping capacity was designed to supply a specified number of households. As the city is growing, infrastructure should also grow, new private property land developers should now pay a nominal fee and have modalities with council pertaining water boost. Ms Gwatipedza also said the city was on average losing at least 50 percent of treated water due to pipe burst. Our pipes are now aged and as council sooner rather than later we will be replacing the pipes in phases to deal with the water leakages,” she said.
Online Reporter