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Dr Mahachi

Farai Kuvirimirwa Herald Reporter—-
HARARE’S perennial water woes are set to ease as work on the refurbishment of Morton Jaffray Water Treatment plant begins to increase output from the current 450 megalitres of water to 640. The 42 percent increase, the city engineers say, will bring water to the perennially dry parts of the city, some of which have not had water for the better part of five years.
To this end, 19 engineers from China arrived in Harare yesterday with a brief to rehabilitate the city’s water and sewer infrastructure under the US$144 million loan that was advanced by the China EximBank in 2011.

The engineers are part of the 46-strong team seconded to Harare for the next four years.
Town Clerk Dr Tendai Mahachi, director of water Engineer Christopher Zvobgo and engineering services director Engineer Philip Pfukwa were at the Harare International Airport to welcome them.

Dr Mahachi said the rehabilitation of the water plants is expected to increase the amount of water reaching residents while the rehabilitation of the sewer plants would reduce the pollution of water bodies and the cost of water treatment.
“They will revamp the entire Morton Jaffray treatment plant and 640 megalitres of water are expected to be produced a day. Currently 450 mega- litres of water are being pro- duced.

“A team of engineers from Harare has already been to China to procure the required equipment which is compatible with the existing pumps and is manufactured by renowned international companies.”

Dr Mahachi said the engineers would be in Zimbabwe for four years where they would work on the water and sewer project which is expected to be completed in three years.

He said during the fourth year, the engineers would be transferring their knowledge to local en- gineers.
Team leader Engineer Peter Song said they would start work today and would work in two groups.
“The two groups consist of those working on the design and others with the construction team.
“Local workers will be recruited while key machinery is coming from China.” He said raw materials such as cement would be sourced locally.

Eng Zvobgo said reliable pump sets would be installed at Morton Jaffray water treatment plant.
“They will bring back Morton Jaffray to 100 percent working capacity. It will improve the availability of water to 80 percent and reduce the costs of power used at the treatment plant.”

The experts, working together with engineers from Harare Water, would also rehabilitate the Warren Control, Alex Park and the Letombo pump stations. Work to be done at Morton Jaffray is estimated at US$44 million while the cost for the pump stations is US$16 million.
The Crowborough and Firle sewage treatment works would use US$17 million, while US$4, 5 million would be used on information technology for billing and automation of the water and sewer plants.

Another US$7 million was set aside to procure two water treatment chemicals and installation of laboratory equipment would use US$1 million while another US$3 million would be used to procure pressure reducing valves and other forms of valves.