Gweru City Council has moved in to address the persistent water problems by proposing to renovate the city’s main supplier Gwenoro Dam’s supplement dams, Whitewaters and Amapongokwe in the coming year. Stephen Chadenga OWN CORRESPONDENT
Finance director Edgar Mwedzi last week told stakeholders that the municipality had proposed to spend $90 000 and $300 000 to refurbish Whitewaters and Amapongokwe, respectively, to improve Gwenoro’s pumping capacity.
“We have proposed $25 million as capital expenditure for the year 2015 and $90 000 will go towards renovating the sand filters at Whitewaters, while Amapongokwe will take up $300 000,” he said at a budget consultation meeting.
“We need to make sure that these two dams (Whitewaters and Amapongokwe) supplement water from Gwenoro and that is why we keep urging residents to pay $20 pump levy to purchase two crucial water pumps.”
In April, the residents’ associations resisted council’s move to pay the $20 levy, saying it had not been done in consultation with them and should be broken down in instalments.
Over the years Gweru has failed to install proper equipment at the two dams to meet the city’s water needs through increased pumping capacity.
A councillor revealed at a community engagement meeting in Gweru last June that even if supply dams were at full capacity, the city still faced water problems as a result of ageing pumps.
“Our dams might be full, but pumping is a problem as we have obsolete pumps, some of which have been in use for more than 30 years,” councillor Kenneth Sithole said.
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“At Gwenoro, we have three pumps, but one pump operates at a time.”
