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Blessings Chidakwa in Kadoma
CHEGUTU Municipality has completed the rehabilitation of its water treatment plant and pump station, which has seen pumping capacity increasing by a further four mega-litres of water per day.

This is expected to significantly improve availability of water, as the town is now producing about 12 mega-litres of water from around eight mega-litres. The development will see residents getting water for about six hours instead of two hours per day. There are also chances that those on higher ground who had not been receiving water for a long time will start doing so.

Speaking during a tour of the water treatment and pump stations, Chegutu mayor Mr Henry Muchatibaya said the town had completed three major projects that would see increased water supply.
“The overall rehabilitation project enables us to pump water into the community while concurrently pumping to our police and Chakari tower pump stations,” said Mr Muchatibaya.

“The idea of rehabilitating our towers was that we want to supply water through gravity and not necessarily pumping, although the two complement each other.”
The treatment plant, which was rehabilitated with the support of Government and private players, serves the Chegutu community and Jason Ziyapapa Moyo Air Force Base.

“We carried out three major projects, including replacing of a two-kilometre pipe of between 250mm and 310mm to match current water demand,” said Mr Muchatibaya.

“The second project involved the total replacement of our low lift pump system which was installed decades ago and used to pump an average of 11 hours per day to the community, but with the new system we can pump continuously without interruption.”

Chegutu replaced five pumps at police tower and Chakari tower stations which will use gravity to complement mechanical pumping.

Water and sewer technician Engineer Raphael Kundi said residents in dry areas such as Pfupajena, ZMDC and parts of Umvovo suburbs should expect to get water through their taps by this weekend.
“We upgraded and rehabilitated the whole pumping house and electrical works inside our water treatment plant and what is left is the curing of cement at one point after which the manufacturer will hand over the plant to us,” he said.

Eng Kundi said a malfunctioning non-returnable water valve which was affecting metering services was replaced during the project. He said the new pumps at booster tower tanks increased water pumping capacity from the source and to residents, as council will now draw between 12 and 14 mega litres from around 12 mega litres.

The project also saw the introduction of an inlet pipe to the treatment plant so that the old one acts as the outlet pipe to residents for continuity. The council is also in the process of phased replacement of an 8 200-km sewer line.