MUTARE– The local municipality has revealed plans to set up a new water plant which needs an investment of US$30 million, to augment water supply in the city.
Mutare acting town clerk Dr Anthony Mutara said council needs this plant to avert water the running deficit of 17 megalitres per day which could also increase to 30 cubic metres by 2030, as demand rises.
Dr Mutara says the new treatment plant would draw water from Osbourne dam or Pungwe River to augment supply as council works towards completion of the Dangamvura Christmas pass water reservoir.
He said once completed the pipeline will stretch current water supplies.
“A study commissioned in 2010 indicated that we would need water augmentation to the city owing to the growth of the population against the demand for water.
“This deficit is not visible at the moment because the supply to areas like Dangamvura is limited, but the moment we finish the Dangamvura pipeline project and start supplying water to those areas, we will begin to see the deficit,” he said.
Mutare city currently draws water from Pungwe River, Odzi and Small bridge dams, and loses the bulk of this water, 58% to water leakages due to dilapidated infrastructure and non-functional meters.
Osbourne Dam will be the most likely water source for the new treatment plant.
Dr Mutara said the city could also get more water from the Pungwe River, but the local authority would have to engage its Mozambican counterpart to get access.
Pungwe River flows from Zimbabwe into Mozambique and drains into the Indian Ocean and Mutare and the city of Beira get water supply through an inter-city catchment transfer facility where the amount each city draws from the river is limited.
He said the plant needed to be constructed with speed as Dangamvura was expected to start receiving water supply as soon as the new pipeline project is complete.
City engineer, Maxwell Kerith says in just three years council has recorded a ten percent decline in non-revenue water.
This will allay financial loss of millions in revenue as flagged by the 2018 Local authorities report, by AG Mildret Chiri, which showed that Mutare astoundingly losses sixty seven percent of its water.
The 2014 audit report shows that Old dilapidated infrastructure, key point water losses, malfunctioning water meters and non-metered connections are some of the key reasons causing this loss, which runs into millions of dollars annually. This is water which is actively pumped out of the local municipality system without accruing revenue.
“…67% of the Council’s treated water (22 677 156 cubic meters) was not billed as it was lost mainly due to leakages, non-metered connections and accounts not created in the system. The situation was worsened by the fact that the Council had 15 872 non-functional water meters,” read part of the report.
