GWERU City Council says the city will continue to experience erratic water supplies as a result of power outages and breakdown of equipment.
BY STEPHEN CHADENGA
“We continue to face insufficient clear and raw water pumping capacity with several leaks along the pumping mains and distribution network,” said the town’s finance director, Edgar Mwedzi.
Mwedzi said that council last week started rehabilitating the Whitewaters water treatment plant as part of measures to improve supplies in the city which recently suffered a typhoid outbreak.
“The department of water supply services had budgeted $1 993 500 for water infrastructure maintenance in 2018,” he said.
“To date a total of $425 595 has been utilised to rehabilitate water pumps at Gwenoro, Amapongokwe and Whitewaters. The rehabilitation of Whitewaters water treatment plant at a cost of $440 000 also started last week with the contractor now on site.”
He said the council planned to expand Gwenoro and the Range booster plants and construct a new raw water pump station at Amapongokwe as part of a long term strategy to guarantee supplies.
A service level benchmarking peer review report carried out in June this year revealed that council was losing at least 57% of its treated water through burst pipes and leakages, with most of its equipment having outlived its lifespan.
