Chronicle Editor
Sharon Chimenya, New Ziana
UPGRADING of the water, sanitation and hygiene projects is a priority in the recently presented Masvingo City Council budget, where US$6 million is earmarked for improving supply of potable water.
The project includes re-designing of the water augmentation Phase 2, procurement of a new pump-set, alternative power supply for water treatment plant and rehabilitation of problem sewer areas expected to take up slightly over the municipality’s capital budget of US$4,25 million.
Masvingo City Finance Director, Mr Danister Jori, said council was facing major challenges under the water, sanitation and hygiene programme mainly attributed to aged infrastructure and population growth.
“More often, we are experiencing frequent pipe bursts, power outages, high levels of non-revenue water, and restricted pumping capacity among other challenges. We are proposing for the redesigning of the water augmentation Phase 2 and we have presented this project in over a number of years now.” The design that was made by the designer at the time is too costly for our system, hence the need to come up with an alternative, so it is that project that we intend to carry out in 2024,” he said.
The upgrading of the water augmentation programme which is expected to double the city’s water supply from 30 mega litres a day to 60 mega litres a day has been on the local authority cards for a long time. According to the budget, the project has been allocated US$200 000.
“Another highlight will be the construction of an alternative power supply for the water treatment plant and here we are looking at putting up a solar plant. We have done a feasibility study which estimated the total cost at US$5 million,” said Mr Jori.
The local authority will allocate US$150 000 for the procurement of a new pump-set for the water treatment plant, US$25 000 for the procurement of new chemical dosing equipment and US$128 000 for the rehabilitation of problem sewer areas. The reduction of non-revenue water through zonal metres will take US$40 000 with the procurement of a new pumps for sewage pump station taking US$65 000, procurement of landfill equipment at US$400 000, Mucheke trunk sewer at US$250 000 and a refuse truck at US$150 000.
Mr Jori said there is need for council and ratepayers to come together and prioritise capital expenditure as the needs are far above capacity. — NewZiana.
Bongani Ndlovu