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Innocent Ruwende Senior Reporter
Harare City Council is this year expected to overhaul 110 kilometres of its ageing water reticulation system at a cost of $23 million in a bid to reduce leakages that are wasting more than 50 percent of treated water. An audit by the city last year showed that non-revenue water had increased by 52 percent from 36 million cubic metres during the first half of 2015 to 55 million cubic metres in 2016.

Speaking during a tour of some of the areas where the city is replacing aged pipes, Harare Water director Engineer Hosiah Chisango said the city secured $20 million from the Zimbabwe Multi-Donor Trust Fund (Zimfund) for the project and it was also pumping in $3 million.

“Harare will be working on critical sections of the water distribution network to reduce water losses and ensure a greater percentage of the water gets to the people,” he said. “Leakage control will increase water availability.

“If we look at the pipes that we have here, they are old pipes and they have been losing a lot of water, so this is part of our service enhancement as we go towards our vision of having everyone getting water.

“We are looking at two issues basically.

“We are looking at increasing our production and reducing the water loses, for example this pipeline, which comes from Alex Park and services Newlands, Eastlea and all the surrounding areas.”

Eng Chisango said the city was expecting to restore water in the areas.

He said some of the oldest pipes were laid about 60 years ago and after sometime, they began to rust, which affected water quality.

“This project (Newlands-Eastlea) will run for about three kilometres of pipework and in terms of costs of the pipework I think it will be for about $300 000 and this is one of the sections we have targeted in the city,” said Eng Chisango. “We have earmarked a few sections that we want to do with our own resources.

“We are also expecting Zimfund to assist us in pipe replacement, so we are targeting to do for about 60 kilometres to the end of the year then the bank will come in with about 50 kilometres so that will improve our water supply systems.”

Eng Chisango said the fund, administered by the African Development Bank, gave Harare a package of about $20 million, which was also going to address pump stations, pipe replacement, meters and other maintenance equipment.

He said Zimfund would also assist in sewage reticulation and at the moment they were working at Marlborough Ponds.