Melinda Kusemachibi
The Covid-19 pandemic, which plunged the country into a standstill amid a series of national lockdowns, has delayed progress on the much awaited Dangamvura water pipeline project that Mutare City Council had targeted to complete by April 2021.
If completed, the project would address water woes in Dangamvura high density suburb, Fernvalley and Industrial area where residents and businesses have been bearing the brunt of water shortages for nearly two decades.
Speaking during an interview with TellZim News, Mutare Mayor Blessing Tandi said they are still working on the project which they failed to complete in 2021.
“One other project still lagging behind which we expected to have been completed is the Dangamvura water pipeline. We are working on it and as of now, majority of the works that we anticipated to have completed that are internally financed are at advanced stage.
“We have fittings that are coming from South Africa that we procured through our partners ADB and are yet to be delivered. They changed the supplier mid-year and the supplier that was supposed to supply this year is yet to do so. We anticipate that when the fittings come, it would be a matter of six weeks for us to complete the works,” said Tandi.
He also said they were planning to draw water from Osborne dam through the Odzani-Odzi water works as a way to improve water supplies to the city.
“We looking at having a feasibility study for the Odzani-Odzi water works. We are looking at drawing water from Osborne dam because what we are looking at most probably according to KV report of 2012. Mutare is having a deficit of 17 mega liters of water every day.
“As we speak right now, the other source of water that can assist is the Odzi water plant. So the feasibility study once done, we can be able to assist most probably the other parts coming in after the implementation of the master plan that we got because our master plan is now stretching towards Odzi up until we get to the Christmas-Pass close to Africa University,” Tandi said.
Mutare City Council Public Relations Officer Spren Mutiwi told TellZim News last year that council will resolve perennial water shortages in Dangamvura by end of 2020.
Mutare Residents and Ratepayers Association (MURRA) official David Mutambirwa once said that as residents they were unhappy about council’s tortoise pace in executing the Dangamvura water pipeline project.
“They have failed dismally to meet all deadlines they had set for completion of this overdue project. Council must convene an all stakeholders meeting to secure experts who can help to execute the project.
“They must swallow their pride since they are failing to timeously meet the set targets hence look out for retired and young engineers who can offer expertise,” said Mutambirwa.
Most local authorities in Zimbabwe have been accused of failing to improve service delivery most notably water supplies, liquid and solid waste management.
