$450k loan for sewer system rehab

GOVERNMENT has extended a $450 000 loan to Chitungwiza Municipality for the rehabilitation of the town’s sewer system that is in a deplorable state.

Chitungwiza has been experiencing sewer pipe bursts on daily basis in different parts of the town.

The Town Clerk Dr George Makunde applauded Government for extending them the loan, which he said would go a long way in improving their sewer problems.

“We have been given a loan by Government, which we shall use exclusively for sewer rehabilitation,” he said.

“The assistance by Government is a kind gesture, which is meant to support the challenges local authorities like us are facing in respect of service delivery. We are facing immense pressure in terms of lack of resources while at the same time demand for service has grown.”

The town’s works manager Engineer Emmanuel Mushata said they were now finalising paperwork on how the money would be spent.

“Although the loan was meant to cover other areas like roads and water rehabilitation, we decided to focus on one thing,” he said.

“We have hot spots in Chitungwiza that we want to work on, but right now we are still finalising our workplan.”

Eng Mushata said the sewer bursts were largely caused by sand ingress and old infrastructure that has outlived its time.

“The problem of sewer bursts in our town is mainly caused by aged infrastructure and the growing population, which is no longer in tandem with the original house designs,” he said.

“Another problem is of sand ingress as most households use sand for scouring dishes and the sand that also comes from squat pan toilets.”

The local authority believes that siltation is being caused by collapsed sewer lines due to internal corrosion and vandalism or theft of cast iron manhole covers, illegal connections and intentional dumping of objects in manholes.

Meanwhile, Chitungwiza council was close to completing the $200 000 sewerage rehabilitation project in Zengeza that was meant to take only six weeks.

“We engaged a contractor in March who is rehabilitating a collapsed sewer trunk line near Limbani Shopping Centre in Zengeza and it is almost 95 percent complete,” said Eng Mushata. ‘Circumstances beyond our control caused delays in the completion of this work.

“Once it is complete, there will be an improvement in the sense that there will be less spillages along the line to Tilcor pump station.”