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Michael Magoronga, Midlands Correspondent
REDCLIFF Town Council has set aside ZW$375 million for the construction of a water treatment plant as part of the local authority’s efforts to improve water supplies in the mining town.

The Government recently approved Redcliff’s ZW$1,6 billion 2021 budget and the council says its priority project is the upgrading of the town’s water reticulation infrastructure. The town is getting water from neighbouring Kwekwe city which recently increased tariffs by more than 500 percent.

Redcliff council recently installed a new water pump to enable it to pump water to areas on high ground which had not received portable water for over a decade.

Acting Town Clerk, Mr Nyararai Gomba, confirmed that the budget had been approved and said one of the big projects to be funded this year is the upgrading of the town’s water reticulation infrastructure.

“Our budget was recently approved and we are targeting to construct a water treatment plant. We have set aside $375 million for that project and we also want to rehabilitate the Rutendo sewer line,” said Mr Gomba.

He said in order to save on equipment hire, council intends to buy its own grader, tipper truck and a refuse compactor and this equipment is estimated to cost about $300 million.

Mr Gomba said another big project planned for this year is the servicing of housing stands in Rutendo Extension, Grasslands and Englebrecht suburbs.

The local authority has also set aside $77 million for road rehabilitation.

“Most of our roads were damaged following the incessant rains received since the onset of the rains,” said Mr Gomba.

Government has since declared the country’s road network a state of disaster to enable it to mobilise the required resources to rehabilitate the roads.

Local authorities in both urban and rural areas will be assisted by Central Government to rehabilitate the roads under their jurisdiction.