The perennial water problems bedevilling most parts of Chinhoyi’s residential areas would only be solved if council secures $6 million for a project to augment supplies.
Former town engineer Tsitsi Masekesa told Local Government minister Ignatius Chombo during a recent visit that council needs to install new pump stations, pipes and construct reservoirs in order to modernise the water system.
The capital project would need funding from the government’s Public Sector Investment Programme.
The ageing water system, said Masekesa, was resulting in massive leakages of treated water before it reached consumers.
Chombo also heard some residential suburbs such as Katanda and Chitambo did not get water at all.
“The current maximum pumping capacity is at 20 megalitres per day, but this figure falls short of the demand as the old pipes are leaking causing shortages in some parts of the town,” said Masekesa, who now works as estates director at Chinhoyi University of Technology.
Chombo urged council to hire Masekesa on a part-time basis to resolve the unending water woes until a substantive engineer had been found.
Meanwhile, Chombo has ordered the municipality to set up a special committee on health that would work round the clock to monitor the water situation, refuse removal and other health-related issues to avert a cholera outbreak.
