Infrastructure blamed for Gweru water woes

AGEING water reticulation infrastructure has been blamed for the intermittent water shortages bedeviling the City of Gweru where residents are now resorting to unsafe water sources, risking water-borne diseases.

The local authority says it needs at least US$ 118,000 to attend to the situation and improve water supplies. In 2018, the city experienced a cholera outbreak that claimed 11 lives due to similar challenges.

Obsolete water infrastructure and a ballooning population among other factors have been cited as reasons behind the city’s water problems. The Midlands capital has a treatment capacity of 66 mega-litres per day but pumps an average 36 mega-litres a day due to the antiquated water infrastructure.

For the past week, residents in low-lying suburbs such as Mkoba 4, 6, and 4 have had no water while those in high areas like Mkoba 15, 18, and 19 have gone for several months with dry taps.

This has left residents with no choice but to rely on the few boreholes available or use unprotected wells, sparking fears of an outbreak of diseases such as cholera and typhoid.

Some residents now wake up at midnight to fetch water from boreholes, risking being attacked by thieves. Residents who spoke to the Chronicle said the situation has become dire. While more affluent families in the city’s low-density suburbs drill boreholes and purchase bottled water, the same options are not available to the vast majority of ordinary people.

Three years ago, the council bought new water pumps at Gwenhoro Dam but these were not in sync with the old infrastructure, resulting in incessant pipe bursts. Gweru City Council spokesperson, Ms Vimbai Chingwaramusee, said there have been several burst pipes along the main line from Gwenhoro Dam, which resulted in water woes.

“We had several bursts and leakages along the mainline so we have managed to attend to all those. Currently, we are still working on the finances to ensure that we revamp our water system,” she said.

Council acting town clerk, Mr Livingston 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.

Mr 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 Gwenhoro high lift pumps.

He said 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 is needed to service Pump No 9 at Gwenhoro, 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,” he said.

Mr Churu said the water situation was being worsened by recurrent power outages and the council has engaged the power utility, Zesa Holdings, to reduce the hours of power cuts at the water treatment plants.