BY PRAISEMORE SITHOLE
THE five-megalitre Gwanda reservoir, which has been under construction for many years now, has now developed leaks before its official commissioning, Sunday Southern Eye has established.
Gwanda mayor Njabulo Siziba said while construction of the reservoir was now complete, the structure had since been found to be leaking.
“To be honest, there is nothing that is really happening. We discovered that the pipeline has small leaks, but to be precise the reservoir is almost complete. There are leaks and when l talked to the engineer, he said there were chemicals that were needed to stop the leaks,” said Siziba.
“We have since advertised the tender for any companies who can assist, but so far we have gotten no response.”
He said council was currently facing money shortages.
“You know that when it comes to local authorities, revenues are low, but we are trying to make sure that these wards have water. We have connected meters to the pipelines and we give residents prepaid tickets so that they can get access to water,” said Siziba.
“There are also two boreholes in ward five which was a project of the United Nations Development Programme, but these two wards are not wholly affected.
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Areas that are mostly affected are the new stands that are not connected to the water pipeline, hence the idea of the water reservoir.”
Siziba said some of the houses in ward five and six were connected to the old water tanks which at least provided some water.
“The problem with the old tanks is that water sometimes will be having no pressure leading to residents in new stands failing to get the precious liquid, but by the end of the first quarter of 2021 the water reservoir should be working and providing water to the residents,” he said.
The reservoir has the capacity to supply a radius of 30km through gradient and a pump to that reservoir has been installed.
