Zimpapers Logo

Munyaradzi Musiiwa and Lovemore Zigara, Midlands Reporters
REDCLIFF Municipality near Kwekwe requires more than $35 million to rehabilitate and upgrade its sewer and water reticulation system, an African Development Bank assessment report has revealed.

The continental lending institution recently availed $4.09 million to the satellite town for water and sewer reticulation as part of its $30 million Urgent Water Supply and Sanitation Rehabilitation Project.

AfDB has also allocated $20 million to Harare City Council, $2.5 million to Ruwa Town Council and $4.09 to Chitungwiza Municipality after receiving funding from Germany, the United Kingdom, Australia, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland.

According to the Stakeholder Consultation and Feedback on Redcliff Investment Plan document released yesterday, Redcliff needs $35.8 million to address the sewer and water reticulation system.

“The existing assets have been roughly valued so that replacement costs could be considered in the financial model.

:The water supply infrastructure is currently valued around $29.5 million, while sewerage infrastructure is valued at around $ 6.2 million. The total fixed asset value is around $35.8 million,” reads part of the report.

AfDB has also proposed that Redcliff should have its own separate water supply system parallel to that of the City of Kwekwe.

In an interview yesterday, Acting Redcliff Town Clerk, Mr Gilson Chakauya, said the local authority was still failing to meet the daily water demand adding that 55 percent of treated water supplied to Redcliff by Kwekwe was being lost through leakages.

In a separate interview, AfDB Zimbabwe Funding Manager, Mr Emmanuel Nzabanita, said AfDB was going to implement the Urgent Water Supply and Sanitation Rehabilitation Project in phases with Harare coming in the first phase.

Mr Nzabanita said the lending institution was looking forward to completing Ruwa, Redcliff and Chitungwiza projects before the end of this year                   while the Harare project would be completed in 2018.

“We have embarked on an Urgent Water Supply and Sanitation Rehabilitation Project. I

“In Redcliff we will be rehabilitating the water supply and drainage systems.

“We will be supplying a Jet Vac detector which can detect pipe bursts to about 2km underground, refurbishing the two water reservoirs and rehabilitating about 5km of water pipes. We will be replacing them. We have established a state of the art water testing laboratory and revitalised three sewage ponds. We will also give them three trucks to improve their service delivery,” he said.

The project was launched at a time Redcliff is grappling with water challenges after Kwekwe disconnected water supplies to the satellite town over a $2 million debt.

This was followed by a diarrhoea outbreak in Rutendo after stranded residents resorted to unclean water sources such as unprotected wells and water from the gutters on their roofs as well as open streams.

Redcliff has three residential areas Redcliff, Rutendo and Torwood with an estimated population of about 50 000 people.

Torwood, which has shared ablution facilities, was once hit by a massive tapeworm outbreak that affected over 3 000 people due to unclean and unsafe water sources.

One of the boreholes in the Zisco compound had to be decommissioned after its water was discovered to be contaminated with chemicals due to iron deposits in the area.