Upgrading of Morton Jaffray plant progresses

Chinese construction company site manager Mr Ma Xiang Fei (right) and agent manager Zhu Qi inspect progress of the new warehouse at Morton Jaffray Waterworks near Norton yesterday

Municipal Reporter
The upgrading of Harare’s water system under the US$144 million China Import and Export Bank loan is going on well with designs for the project completed and construction of a warehouse to store equipment in progress, town clerk Dr Tendai Mahachi has said. Speaking after the last project status meeting for this year between city officials and their project partners CMEC of China, Dr Mahachi said council was satisfied with the speed with which the project was moving.

“Engineers from council and China have already completed designs not only for Morton Jaffray but also for Warren Control and Firle Sewer Works. We want the equipment to simply fit in place when they arrive so it was necessary to re-design the plant so the equipment may fit.

“Some of the containers with project equipment have already arrived as we speak and some of the equipment is on its way to Harare after having been cleared at the border,” he said.

He also said the project to decommission and purchase new pumps under the Zimfund should be complete by February next year. The Chinese engineers also told city officials that they intended to work throughout the Christmas holidays. The city intends to change cast iron impellers and replace them with steel impellers which last for at least 15 years.

Cast iron impellers have a short life-span as they need to be changed after every six months. The phased project would start with Morton Jaffray, Warren Control and the Firle Sewer Works respectively.

The city partnered with CMEC of China in the implementation of the project after sourcing funding from that country. About 500 containers with equipment for the project are expected to come from China. This followed complaints by residents that they were not getting enough water and also after realising that the water and sewer distribution network was old and needed replacement.

Occasional major pipe bursts were forcing residents to fetch water from unprotected sources risking their health. Harare provides water to 2,5 million residents and a further 1,5 million in satellite towns and the upgrading of the MJ plant is expected to result in a 42 percent increase to the city’s water supplies but the construction of other water sources is key in ending the water woes.