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Fungai Lupande

Mash Central Bureau

Mvurwi Town Council is building a sewage treatment plant using devolution funds with the treated effluent being used to irrigate pastures and gum tree plantations.

Mvurwi town secretary Dr Sheri Nyakudya said construction of the plant, which has a capacity of 1 600 cubic litres per day, was being funded by the $11 627 644 received under devolution.

Although Mvurwi has a population of about 3 000 households, the plant will be big enough to cope with over 26 000 households.

The first phase of the plant is complete, with works already done on intake works and concrete lining of the anaerobic, facultative and maturation ponds.

Explaining the functions of the plant, Dr Nyakudya said the initial point is a dual intake pond where all dirty water from the town is received.

“The water is then screened, solid waste is removed and water is allowed to pass. The affluent is then sent to an anaerobic pond. This is a natural treatment system and there is no need for electricity or solar,” she said.

“From the anaerobic pond the water is sent to the facultative pond and then to the maturation pond. In the maturation pond the water will be finer and cleaner.

“We have a soakaway whereby the water is recycled and we have installed pumps to irrigate pasture and gum tree plantations.”

The project started in 2018 through $600 000 from the Public Sector Investment Programme and the following year devolution funds were committed.

“We received the first amount of $9 127 664 under devolution in June 2019. The estimated cost of completing the first phase of the plant was about $15 million and we require the same amount to start working on the second phase. To date we have received $11 627 644 and we have channelled all the money towards this project,” said Dr Nyakudya.

She said concrete lining of the first phase is complete and work on the second phase is at 40 percent.

“The whole plant is 70 percent complete and we are expecting that the project will be done by December this year.”

Apart from the sewage treatment plant, the council is also constructing Rusununguko Clinic using its own resources.

The clinic, which is almost complete, is expected to help decongest Mvurwi Hospital. Rusununguko Clinic was constructed after the realisation that Suoguru, a satellite clinic in the area, no longer had capacity to cater for the people within its catchment area.