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Patrick Chitumba Midlands Bureau Chief
THE successful correlation between Gweru City Council (GCC) and the people of Germany is coming to an end after more than six years in which the latter funded developmental projects that have resulted in an improvement in service delivery in the Midlands capital.

Addressing councillors and European Union (EU) representatives at the commissioning of Cambridgeshire Sewage Treatment Plant yesterday, German Development Cooperation-GIZ-Ausaid project manager Mr Stephen Lidsb said it was with a heavy heart that he was announcing the end of the partnership between GCC and GIZ.

“We are here to commission the rehabilitation of the sewer treatment plant which was last used years ago,” he said. “Through this partnership we managed to rehabilitate two sewer ponds and work is ongoing on the third pond.

“If money was there we were going to rehabilitate the trickling filters so that the whole sewer treatment plant is working perfectly and discharges effluent free water downstream. But our partnership is coming to an end now.”

Giving an overview of the success of the partnership and development, Gweru director of engineering services Engineer Robson Manatsa said the link between the local authority and GIZ had brought enormous economic benefits. He said council used to have high rate of leakages of portable water before GIZ intervened with filters and pipes which solved the problem Eng Manatsa said GIZ and GCC unblocked and opened up the Kopje reservoirs to end a 10-year problem of water that was failing to flow smoothly to the tanks, adding that as a result water is now reaching areas such as Mkoba 15, 18 and 20, which have been facing water challenges. “With the support from GIZ we got refuse trucks; we came up with a solid waste management plan to protect the environment and addressing climate change gaps,” he said. “We received computers and we have revenue collection system in place.

“Our members of staff were taken for skills training among other projects that GIZ assisted us with. The partnership brought huge benefits to the town.”  He said the ponds were now 70 percent complete after GIZ intervened and provided over $70 000 for the rehabilitation programme.“This treatment plant has not been working and we were in constant fights with communities downstream up,” said Eng Manatsa. “Farmers were feeling the effects of raw effluent which we were discharging.

“Even the Environment Management Agency was always penalising us, but that should change now thanks to this partnership.”

Deputy Ambassador of Germany to Zimbabwe, who was leading EU delegation, Dr Christina Oelke, said they were pleased with the level of development that had been brought by the partnership between GIZ and city of Gweru.

“Overally, I am impressed by the level of developmental projects that have been brought by my Government and EU to Zimbabwe at large,” he said. “I have representatives from Sweden and EU here who have seen this progress and we have a lot of positives to take back.”