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Ms Gwatipedza

Sharon Chiware Midlands Reporter
GWERU City Council has invited a tender for the supply and installation of a new sewer pump at its Phakamisa Pump Station, as the local authority seeks to improve its sewer reticulation system, which of late has been experiencing constant bursts.

Town Clerk Ms Elizabeth Gwatipedza said in an interview last week that the local authority needed to upgrade its sewer system to meet the required minimum health standards.

She said council had been on a collision course with the Environmental Management Agency for discharging affluent into water bodies, adding that the installation of a new upgraded sewer pump will address the problem.

“We need to upgrade our sewer pump station at the Phakamisa Pump Station and we have since flighted tender for the supply of the new pump,” she said

Ms Gwatipedza said the council sought to improve on service delivery.

“Our mandate as the local authority is to improve service delivery while at the same time making sure that we’re are environmentally friendly,” she said. “There have been complaints, with environmental health standards regulatory authority EMA accusing Gweru City Council of discharging sewer into water bodies.

“We have, therefore, decided to work on upgrading our sewer plant so as to address the problem.”

Ms Gwatipedza said council had re-commissioned its water reservoir in the Kopje area in a bid to ease water shortages in the city.

Gweru residents have of late, been subjected to erratic water supplies, with the council saying they were running out of water treatment chemicals.

“To solve the erratic water supplies we have been experiencing, we have re-commissioned water reservoir in the Kopje area suburb which has a total capacity of 64 000 cubic meters and have been lying idle,” said Ms Gwatipedza. “This will help improve water supplies in most parts of the city.”

The Kopje reservoir was decommissioned some 10 years ago.