…As contractor resumes operations on the project
Melinda Kusemachibi
The ‘legacy’ Mucheke Trunk Sewer project that has been going on since 2013 received a major boost towards resumption of operations following the injection of ZW$100 million devolution funds, Masvingo Town Clerk Engineer Edward Mukaratirwa recently confirmed.
Mukaratirwa indicated that they are going to cover an area of 2km using the devolution funds allocated this year.
“ZW$100 million was allocated for working on the trunk sewer project and it will cover an area of 2km,” said Eng Mukaratirwa.
He also said that contractors were on the ground as they resume work on the project to try and cover the area.
“Contractors are on the ground as they have resumed work. They were supposed to have started early February but they were affected by rains, now the project has resumed,” said Mukaratirwa.
Masvingo city’s Mucheke Trunk Sewer upgrade remains incomplete, nine years after the project started, and more than US$4 million was initially lost towards the project.
Mukaratirwa said of the ZW$120million allocated in 2021 they only used ZW$87million.
“In 2021 ZW$120 million was allocated on devolution funds towards Mucheke Trunk Sewer but we only used ZW$87 million and covered a distance of 1,2km,” said Eng Mukaratirwa.
In 2012, City of Masvingo advertised a tender to construct the Mucheke Trunk Sewer, a pipeline running roughly parallel to Mucheke River and planned to link with the sewer plant in Eastvale.
Covering a stretch of 7km, the new sewer trunk is meant to extend to the fairly new and sprawling Victoria Ranch suburb just outside Masvingo.
Initially Harare-based Mutual Construction (Pvt) Ltd was awarded the tender after beating at least 10 other bidders, and council fixed a US$2,1 million loan from the National Social Security Authority (NSSA) to fund the project.
As at March, 3 2021 checks have however, revealed that Mutual Construction was not among the 108 professional firms listed on the Engineering Council of Zimbabwe (ECZ) website.
Project development kicked off in 2012 and was supposed to be completed within a year, but work stopped in early 2013.
Mutual Construction had removed its equipment that remained on the project site by the end of 2014, save for the giant 750-1200mm diameter cement-asbestos pipes purchased from Turnall Holdings.
In 2015, council put out a public notice borrowing a further US$1, 7 million to fund resumption of work on the project. But barely a quarter of the job has been done.
According to a recent report, Masvingo reported an average of 2 812 sewer blockages per year and was blamed for lack of supervision and lack of enforcement of contract agreements by its engineers and staff.
