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Patrick Chitumba Midlands Bureau Chief
GWERU City Council (GCC) is engaging various partners to fund the rehabilitation of its pumps and boreholes at Amaphongokwe and Whitewaters dams, which are 70 percent full, to complement Gwenhoro Dam which is left with two months’ supply.

GCC director of engineering services Engineer Robson Manatsa said the city will continue experiencing acute water shortages until they find a partner to rehabilitate infrastructure at Amaphongokwe and Whitewaters dams.

“Currently council is engaging various partners to fund its urgent water infrastructure requirements which include four pumps at Amaphongokwe, one treated water pump, Whitewaters rehabilitation and some 20 motorised commercial boreholes,” he said. Eng Manatsa said Gwenhoro dam was failing to supply residents with portable water since it was drying up.

“Gwenhoro treatment plant should run with nine treated water pumps and five raw water pumps at Gwenhoro Dam and five raw water pumps at the Amaphongokwe dam intake tunnel. Currently four treated water and five raw water pumps are working at Gwenhoro and one raw water pump is running at Amaphongokwe intake.

“This has seen us depleting Gwenhoro dam which is now down to 22 percent while Amaphongokwe has more than 70 percent capacity. The 22 percent remaining at Gwenhoro will last us slightly over two months at normal pumping rates.”

Eng Manatsa encouraged residents to use water sparingly while at the same time maintaining good hygiene to avoid any outbreaks of potential water borne diseases.

“We will keep updating our residents, ratepayers and all clients on the progress. We urge everyone to save water as much as possible and also improve on our general hygiene so as to avoid disease outbreaks during this period of water shortages,” he said.

Town Clerk Ms Elizabeth Gwatipedza last month said the total water produced is not enough to meet the 60 plus mega litres that are required per day.

“With a deficit of 15 mega litres per day, we can’t fill our reservoirs. High lying areas which include Mkoba 14, 19, 11, 10, 1, 2, 7, 17, Haben Park and Ridgemont suffer because of the deficit,” said Ms Gwatipedza,” she said.

Ms Gwatipedza said due to frequent power outages and pipe bursts on council’s pumping mains, there are times when there is no production from the treatment plants further worsening the water supply.

Council is also planning to drill an additional 20 boreholes in residential areas to augment the already existing boreholes which are now overwhelmed.

The boreholes will be using electric power to pump water and will be linked to the municipality’s water system.