Hwange Local Board clinches award
THE Hwange Local Board (HLB) was the winner of the Water Supply and Waste Water Management at an awards ceremony which was held during the Local Government Investment Logic Conference in Harare on Wednesday last week.
HLB chief executive officer Mr Ndumiso Mdlalose said it was a recognition of the efforts the local authority has put towards improving its water and sewer reticulation systems over the years.
The two-day conference which started on Tuesday brought together local authorities in the country with focus on investment promotion, infrastructure development and service delivery.
“The award was probably in recognition of the sewer and water reticulation system infrastructural developments we undertook especially the rehabilitation of our sewer plant at Baobab and our supply of water to residents in hours which is almost 24 hours unless there is a breakdown,” said Mr Mdlalose.
HLB completed rehabilitating one of its sewer plants in the medium density suburb of Baobab early this year.
The Baobab sewer plant caters for 500 housing units and its rehabilitation programme was funded by the Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe at a cost of $300 000 and the work was carried out by Woodton Engineering.
Mr Mdlalose also said winning the award signified their capacity and ability to offer service delivery.
“Winning the award goes a long way towards boosting confidence on our ability to run an urban authority and our quest for municipality status,” he said.
HLB was established in 1974 and due to multiple administration and land ownership by the three parastatals namely Hwange Colliery Company Limited (HCCL), Zesa Holdings’ subsidiary Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) and the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) the local authority only administers and offers service provision to two suburbs namely Empumalanga and Baobab.
The local authority also came second for the best display award at an exhibition held concurrently with the conference.