GWERU City Council requires at least US$118 000 to immediately improve the water supply situation, Southern Eye has established.
Acting town clerk Livingston Churu said the money was needed to repair broken pumps, buy new electric motors and servicing water reservoirs.
In a letter to Gweru Residents and Ratepayers Association (GRRA) director Cornelia Selipiwe, Churu said a myriad of interventions to improve water supply in the Midlands city were being implemented.
“However, the proposed measures are subject to availability of funds,” he said.
Churu said US$18 000 was required to service a damaged submersible pump at Amapongokwe water works, which would add nine mega-litres per day of raw water into the treatment plant.
The city also requires US$83 000 to buy new electric motors for Gwenoro high lift pumps.
Once all the measures are implemented, this would ensure an additional 17 mega-litres a day of treated water.
He said a further US$4 000 was needed to service Pump No 9 at Gwenoro, whose bearings were worn out, while US$5 000 was required to repair and commission the Kopje water reservoirs.
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The council has already forked out US$8 000 to repair a 500kVA transformer at Range Booster pump station.
According to Churu, power outages were worsening the city’s water situation.
He, however, added that council has since engaged Zesa Holdings to reduce the hours of power cuts at the water treatment plants.
Last month, GRRA wrote to the council demanding immediate resolutions to the erratic water supplies affecting residents.
The treatment capacity of the existing water infrastructure in the Midlands capital is 66 mega-litres per day, but the city currently pumps an average 36 mega-litres a day due to the aged water infrastructure.
