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US$1 million, a city engineer has said.
Harare uses an average US$2 million monthly for a cocktail of seven water treatment chemicals to purify the water which is largely polluted by raw sewege flowing into its river system.

Refurbishment of the two plants which have not been working for close to 10 years began late last year and is expected to be finished this year.
The plants broke down partly due to clogging by sand used to wash household dishes and general lack of maintenance.
An average three trailer loads of sand are removed from the Firle sewer treatment plant daily, raising fears that residents are not aware of the dangers of their household activities.

During a tour of the two plants on Friday to apprise councillors and the media on developments at the plants, Engineer Simon Muserere who is responsible for the sewer plants said the city would save up to $US1 million once the project is complete.

“The refurbishment of the plants will help reduce the number of water treatment chemicals at the plants.
“In addition there will be an increase in water treatment because we will use less polluted water,” he said.

Sidal Engineering, owned by Mr Sydney Hambira, is doing the refurbishment while Energy Resources Africa Consortium headed by Mr Dave Mashayamombe is installing a methane gas power plant at the Firle Sewer Plant for electricity generation for the plant.
At the moment intermittent power supplies have negatively impacted on operations on the plant.

Power black-outs stop sewer treatment which is offloaded into Manyame River.
Harare Water director Engineer Christopher Zvobgo urged residents to settle their bills so that the city could effectively discharge its mandate.
He said residents owed the water department in excess of US$50 million – money which would greatly improve water delivery in the city.

Eng Zvobgo said the refurbishment was wholly funded from the city coffers.
“So far we have spent US$4 million. We expect to spend more in the coming months to finish the refurbishment programme.”

The Firle plant which has capacity to treat 144 megalitres of raw sewer is currently treating only 54 megalitres daily.
The plant would increase its production to 72 megalitres from next month, bringing the total to 126 megalitres.
Eng Muserere said the refurbishment would ensure that the two plants run for 10 years without any mechanical failures.