More than US$7bn for water chemicals

CLOUDINE MATOLA AND TENDAIISHE NYAMUKUNDA

 

The government has availed   more than US$7bn for the renovation of the Umzingwane Dam and the purchase of chemicals for water treatment, Business Times can report.

An additional US$1.6m was made available to the City of Harare for the purchase of chemical water treatment.

The development was disclosed by Anxious Masuka, the Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Fisheries, and Rural Development.

“US1.6m have been disbursed for the purchase of critical chemicals by the city of Harare. For Bulawayo government has now availed another US$7bn for critical repairs  that are required in Umzingwane and purchase of other critical materials,” he said

Furthermore, Masuka stated that the goal is to raise the daily water supply in Harare from the existing 300–350 megalitres to 520 megalitres.

“We wanted to increase our daily water supply to 520 megalitres a day. We are currently hovering around 300-350 megalitres a day and the government has availed resources to kick-start this process,” he said.

Minister Masuka also mentioned that the government is supporting the City of Harare’s initiatives to give its citizens access to clean water, sanitary conditions, and good hygiene.

Masuka added that at least sixteen chemicals are being used by the water authorities to filter Harare Water.

“We have seen that in the case of Harare, there is lots of pollution. And we have to use 16-17 chemicals to clean the water to make it clean before we can utilize it.

“Simply because of the pollution that’s taking place, the government is considering widening the scope of waste to include waste water management for some of the major projects that we are currently undertaking,” he said.

In addition, Masuka said that Bulawayo wants to increase its water generation capacity to 155 megaliters per day in order to meet their daily need of 175 megalitres.

“We want the Aping Forest 20 megalitres per day generation capacity to be operating optimally at about 16 megalitres a day and then give 4 megalitres a day to the family community,

“So there are interventions in Bulawayo to ensure that we can get to the 155 megalitres a day against their demand indication of 175 megalitres a day,” he said.

Minister Masuka also said Bulawayo city has stocked water treatment chemicals which last for up to three months whilst Harare has chemicals that will not last for months. “And Bulawayo city is far better than Harare in terms of managing its chemical supplies. They do have adequate supplies. In fact, they are stocked ordinarily for three months, whereas Harare generally has less than a month stock of chemicals,” said Masuka.

 

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