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Sydney Kawadza Masvingo Bureau Chief
The City of Masvingo will continue to experience intermittent water rationing until the municipality accesses a $50 million loan facility agreed with a Chinese financial partner to augment its pumping capacity. Masvingo City mayor Councillor Hubert Fidze told The Herald in an interview recently that although they had enough water from the main source — Lake Mutirikwi — water rationing would continue until the water pumping system is upgraded.

“The population in the city is growing and we need 48 megalitres of water for our residents and ratepayers, but our pumping capacity is at 30 mega-litres,” he said.

“Although there is enough water from our source, the supplies get exhausted easily, hence the need to embark on some cuts so that we pump more water into the reservoirs.” Masvingo City has daily scheduled water cuts running for four to five hours or more in some areas and Cllr Fidze said areas on high ground were usually the most affected.

The development also comes after the Zimbabwe National Water Authority announced that Zimbabwe dams had enough water for agricultural and domestic purposes. Mutirikwi has enough water supply for the next 30 months. Cllr Fidze said more areas would suffer water cuts because of the archaic water reticulation system where some pipes could not withstand pressure when supplies were restored.

“There are occasions where we have to cut supplies to repair pipe bursts with our engineers attending to four or five of these per day because the pipes are old. We have, however, given an assurance that the Central Business District, Masvingo Provincial Hospital and Delta Corporation has 24 hour water supplies,” he said. Cllr Fidze said council had agreed with Chinese firm, CAMCE, for a $50 million loan facilities that would be paid over 20 years for the city’s water and sewer reticulation upgrades.

“But as you are aware, Government guarantees our loans and have not been able to do so over the years and we are hoping this would change soon,” he said. Cllr Fidze said the funding would help council increase pumping capacity to 60 mega-litres.