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Kadoma needs $25m for water, sewer reticulation system overhaul

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KADOMA City Council is scouting for partners to refurbish its water and sewer reticulation system, which is now obsolete and failing to meet growing demand.

KADOMA City Council is scouting for partners to refurbish its water and sewer reticulation system, which is now obsolete and failing to meet growing demand.

BY BLESSED MHLANGA

Kadoma is losing nearly 40% of its treated water due to obsolete pipes
Kadoma is losing nearly 40% of its treated water due to obsolete pipes

City engineer, Bernatah Nhika this week said Kadoma needed a new water works plant and total upgrade of the obsolete water and sewer pipe works, which were making it twice more expensive to provide services in the city.

“We are conducting a hydrological survey at Claw Dam, so we can establish a new site for a new water treatment plant with the capacity to supply the needs of a growing Kadoma,” he said.

His comments come after Kadoma mayor, Muchineripi Chinyanganya said the council will have to drill boreholes to supply new suburbs like Victory Park Phase 1 and 2 with water. Nhika said the present waterworks would not be able to meet the needs of an expanding Kadoma, mainly because of the old equipment and aged pipes.

“Currently, we treat 28 to 30 megalitres of water a day, which is sufficient to cover our present needs. But with losses of nearly 40% of treated water, there is need to look at upgrading pipes and improve efficiency at the water treatment plant,” he said.

Most houses in Rimuka high-density suburb have defective billing systems, owing to faulty water meters and continually bursting water pipes.

Nhika said owing to these defects, council was losing nearly $100 000 a month worth of treated water. “We need about $25 million to ensure all these issues are addressed in the next five years, we have already started a metering project, which will cut our water losses, while we work on the infrastructure,” he said.

Chinyanganya said council was working to ensure that the water crisis, which hit Kadoma in 2007, would not be repeated.

“We were hit by cholera in 2008 owing to our poor water and sewer reticulation systems, therefore, our goal is to put in place systems, which prevent that from happening again,” he said.