Victor Maphosa
Mashonaland East Bureau
Marondera Municipality has set in motion plans to install pre-paid water meters to ensure easier collection of revenue, the council’s public relations officer, Mr Kudakwashe Tapfumaneyi, has said.
Presently, the council is doing a feasibility study of the programme.
Mr Tapfumaneyi said some technical challenges had been experienced by some local authorities that pioneered the project, hence Marondera was engaging sister local authorities implementing the pre-paid water project to establish the feasibility concerns.
Council will convert to prepaid water once all issues have been ironed out and after consultations with residents and all stakeholders, he said.
Marondera Municipality also plans to improve water supply in Marondera through expanding the water treatment plant.
“Population growth has put a strain on our existing water supply infrastructure,” said Mr Tapfumaneyi. “Currently, council supplies 13,5 megalitres of potable water per day and this isn’t sufficient for a population of over 66 000 people.
“The goal is to double that capacity to meet demand, at least to 27 megalitres per day. That will be enough for the residents, and for us to do that, we would need to expand the existing waterworks and the establishment of new water stations.”
Mr Tapfumaneyi said council required a lot of funds to come up with construction designs and the construction itself.
“Raising such huge financial resources is a challenge for the council since most ratepayers are not religiously paying up their council bills. Council is owed over $3 billion dollars by ratepayers and corporates,” he said.
“At least 39 percent are paying up while the rest are not. So we urge them to pay their bills so that we improve our service delivery for them.”
In that regard, the council is actively looking for investors for partnerships in expanding water infrastructure.
“We have been also exploring other avenues to try and augment water distribution through the rehabilitation of the 523 000 litre elevated water modular tanks at Braithewaitte pump station and the rehabilitation of the Longlands water treatment plant plus rapid sand filters and other ancillaries,” said Mr Tapfumaneyi.
“Council also bought 6×3 000 litre tractor-drawn mobile water bowsers, drilled 16 boreholes and installed bush pumps in 12 wards, supplied and installed the 100kVA pumping plant at Nyambuya Dam. These projects are a combination of measures meant to enhance our current capacity to supply potable water and mitigatory measures to supply water to hotspots during periods of intermittent water supply. So, a lot is being done to try and mitigate water shortages in the short, medium and long term.”
Marondera Municipality has been rationing water to try and evenly distribute it.