The Sunday News
Rutendo Nyeve, Sunday News Reporter
THE City of Victoria Falls has embarked on a US$4 million water reticulation system upgrade that will see the construction of 80 mega-litre reservoirs expected to boost and manage water pressure as well as distribution around the city.
The expansion project is expected to come in handy since the city has witnessed rapid growth over the past few years with the development of 110 low-density housing units and 500 stands under the BB7 and CBZ respectively heralding part of the exponential growth. In an interview, Victoria Falls Town Clerk, Mr Ronnie Dube gave an insight into the water reticulation upgrade that the city has embarked on.
“We are currently working on the upgrades of our water reticulation and distribution system. So far, the works that we are doing are at the Mkhosana reservoirs where we are doing the five mega-litre ground tank and a 75 mega-litre elevated tank. The whole idea is to boost and manage water pressure and distribution in the Mkhosana area. The cost of the project is US$4 million and is wholly funded by the council, while we have contracted ICP as our contractor and we also have consulting engineers,” said Mr Dube.
He said the council embarked on the project following an outcry from residents of Mkhosana and partly Chinotimba who were experiencing prolonged water shedding due to power cuts and few reservoirs.
“We embarked on this project because we were having an outcry from the residents of Mkhosana and partly Chinotimba where we are using direct pumping from our waterworks. When we do not have electricity, we cease pumping immediately and our people stop getting water on the spot,” said Mr Dube.
He said the project will alleviate the problem as the holding capacity that is being created is for two and a half days which is enough for the council to attend to any mechanical problem or water bursts that will have arisen.
After the completion of this phase, the next stage of the project will be to attend the water abstraction point so that the amount of water that is delivered to the waterworks is adequate to be treated.
“During our summer season, when the water levels are low, we have a shortage of water because our abstraction point is old and needs to be upgraded. This project is expected to cost us US$1 million and we envisage to start on it mid next year after completing the current works which should be completed in January next year. We have also purchased new pumps and pipes all to improve our water reticulation system.”
On the environmental management side, the city of Victoria Falls is set to join other towns like Masvingo in being the pioneers of establishing an engineered landfill site. The landfill is set to be commissioned on Friday together with other equipment that the city has purchased to improve service delivery and remain a unique natural and competitive world-class tourist destination.
“This is a concept which our engineer learnt when she went to Japan and we will be launching it on Friday 9 June 2023. We will also commission a refuse truck which we bought in collaboration with Zambezi Properties who are our partners in business. So far the council has managed to acquire a Lovol Grader, refuse compactor and four service delivery pickups which are yet to be delivered but all this other equipment is already on the ground and we are using it,” said Mr Dube.
He said the idea is to equip council so that it becomes efficient in terms of service delivery, while he encouraged residents to continue paying their rates so that they are able to provide services that they expect. In December 2020, Victoria Falls was declared a city 20 years after being granted town status. — @nyeve14
