malvernmugadzikwa
Nyore Madzianike
OVER 9 000 kilometres of Harare’s ageing water and sewer pipes will be upgraded in an exercise expected to bring relief to residents plagued by water and sanitation challenges.
The initiative, funded by Harare Metropolitan province’s ring-fenced devolution funds, prioritises areas worst hit by water supply disruptions and diarrhoeal diseases, such as Mbare, Glen View and Kuwadzana.
Overall, about 5 000km and 4 000km of the city’s water and sewer pipes, respectively, are set to be replaced under the programme, which is being spearheaded by a Government-appointed technical committee and the Harare City Council.
Separately, Government has also facilitated procurement of 52 tractors to bolster the city’s solid waste management efforts.
The first batch of eight tractors arrived last week, with another consignment expected this week. It is envisaged that the tractors, secured through a bilateral deal with Belarus, will significantly boost Harare’s waste collection capacity.
For decades, Harare’s dilapidated sewer system has posed a major health hazard, contributing to outbreaks of waterborne diseases.
Harare Town Clerk Engineer Hosiah Chisango confirmed the development.
“We got eight of the 52 tractors yesterday (Tuesday). I am sure next week there will be more,” he told The Sunday Mail.
“As you can recall, there is a technical taskforce on water appointed by our President through the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, and that taskforce was working primarily on the production side.
“After that work on the production side, we have started working on the reticulation system.
“Because we have an increasing population and the densification of settlements, our pipes, some of them, no longer have capacity and are old, bursting many times, leading to water losses.”
The programme had been rolled out in Mbare, Rugare and Kuwadzana.
“For the low-density suburbs, we also see that there are a lot of cluster developments that are coming up, where probably one household ends up with nine or 10 cluster houses, and we need to eventually increase our pipes’ capacities,” he said.
Eng Chisango said the replacement of old pipes was an ongoing project but will now be expedited.
“What we want to do is to increase the pace with which we replace those pipes; every year, we should replace those pipes.
“We have a network of close to 5 000km of water and between 3 000 to 4 000km for wastewater pipes, and that is work we are planning to do,” he said.
The new plans, Eng Chisango added, were in line with President Mnangagwa’s call for enhanced service provision by local authorities.
“We are looking at the call to action that has been made by His Excellency on local authorities and we are keeping an eye on it to say by 2030 we should be providing good services. We need properly sized and new pipes to be able to do that,” he said.
“For wastewater, it is similar to a project that we are carrying out where we want to address blockages being reported in high-density areas.
“We are upgrading the sewer network in cholera-prone places like Glen View, Kuwadzana and Mbare. We also have bigger pipes that cross streams. We are attending to them because they are discharging sewer in the streams.
“The idea is to collect all the wastewater from the city to treatment works and there is also work being done at the waterworks,” he said.
He said council will also be scaling up solid waste management by laying out a sustainable programme of waste management.
“Government declared a State of Disaster for the province and there is the ongoing Operation Chenesa Harare. We are looking at how we can then sustain waste management after the operation.
“In light of that, we procured equipment that includes tractors, compactors and other machinery.
“We have already secured some and we are hoping that in the next two weeks, we will commission the equipment. We expect to receive devolution funds from Government.
“We will build capacity as we go and if we enhance revenue collection, I can see positive movement,” he said.
The technical committee assisting Harare was appointed by Government in October and tasked with developing and implementing a comprehensive plan to improve water availability and quality in the city.
Its mandate also includes increasing and maintaining water production at around 520 megalitres a day and reducing non-revenue water from 59 percent to 55 percent.
Non-revenue water is water that has been produced or treated but is lost or unaccounted for before it reaches the customer’s meter.
The water can be lost through leaks, theft or inaccurate metering.
The committee will also ensure improved potable water supply coverage in the city from 40 percent to 60 percent.
Since the appointment of the committee, chaired by University of Zimbabwe Civil Engineering lecturer Professor Hodson Makurira, bulk water production has more than doubled from 150 megalitres to about 350 megalitres per day.
Online Reporter