By Delicious Mathuthu
Gweru City Council seems to be chasing its own tail, going in circles as it attempts to address the city’s decades-long water crisis, marred by a series of catastrophic blunders, resulting in the wastage of hundreds of thousands of United States dollars.
Challenges bedeviling Gweru City Council’s main water works, Gwenoro, over the years include an obsolete water reticulation infrastructure, a ballooning population, constant water pump and motor breakdowns, recurrent power outages by the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA), inadequate funding to revamp the water supply system, and insufficient pumping capacity, among others.
The city’s water demand has grown over the years due to its expansion and now requires over 120 megaliters of water per day against an installed capacity of about 67 megaliters.
Currently, Gwenoro is pumping an average of about 35 megaliters a day due to equipment breakdowns.
In an effort to increase pumping capacity, the central government in 2019 procured four pumps for US$440,000 from a South African company, AgriCo, on behalf of Gweru City Council, from its devolution funds to replace some of the old faulty ones at the pumping site.
The central government intervention came after Gweru City said it needed about US$6 million to procure the needed pumps, a figure that was allegedly inflated.
After purchasing the pumps, it was discovered that they required less power and needed a 400-volt electricity transformer against the existing 3,300-volt one.
“A 3.3kv transformer cannot run a 400v pump because it will burn it, but what we got are the 400v pumps, hence the need for a new transformer,” current Gweru City Director of Engineering, Eng. Masauso Stores said during an ordinary council meeting at Townhouse recently as councilors inquired progress made so far at the water works.
Undeterred, Gweru council made efforts to procure a new transformer for about $74,000 to downgrade to the voltage needed.
The tender, however, did not succeed after the supplier who won the tender allegedly failed to deliver it on time, and the local authority took legal action, before purchasing another through ZESA Enterprises (ZENT) for $80,000.
After a prolonged struggle to acquire the transformer and installation process at the water works, which took about four years, the three pumps failed to generate the necessary pressure needed to feed the water supply system.
In a shocking admission during an ordinary council meeting on May 20, 2024, Gweru council management revealed that the pumps procured in 2019 were wrong.
“We bought the pumps in 2019, but we had no tender document. They were bought through government; we were being assisted by the then Minister of State (Larry) Mavima,” Gweru City Council Engineering Department Deputy Director, Eng. Praymore Mhlanga said.
“So, we were told that from our devolution fund they are now taking money straight from government; we never signed anything with the supplier, the supplier signed with government.
“The money never even came into our accounts, but we were just being advised by government.
“So, where we have a problem is that the supplier was aware that at our site, our pumps work with 3.3-kv (transformer), but instead of supplying pumps of a similar voltage input, he supplied us with those that use 400-volts, which was wrong.” He said.
No one from the local authority, including its technical staff in the engineering department, raised a red flag on the make of the pumps from purchase till the pressure test failure, after the successful installation of the inferior 400v transformer years later.
“We agreed and paid (ZENT); they did the transformer and installed it, but it also had some problems, as you know our infrastructure is too old.
“After finally succeeding in installing it, passing the testing stage, and commissioning, the supplier, AgriCo, then sent their electrician, who connected the pumps.
“The pumps were run, all three, but they could not develop the necessary pressure to deliver at Gwenoro,” Eng. Mhlanga said.
He said the pump pressure was ranging around 9 bars instead of about 30 bars needed.
After the failure, Mhlanga said the contractor then withdrew from the site and later sent an email saying the pumps might have been run in the wrong direction that is why they were not building enough pressure, against the label directions on the pumps.
At around the same time, due to negligence by council workers, part of the pumphouse with the new pumps was flooded.
The pump motors now need drying, a process expected to cost council more thousands in US dollars.
“… that particular potion of the pumphouse was flooded.
“Which means all those (pump) electric motors ingested moisture and you cannot run them because you will burn them.
“So we took them out and sent them to Harare for drying. We are now doing the procurement processes so that the motors are dried,” Eng. Stores said.
The drying process is expected to take long and will cost the local authority handsomely with revelation that the pump supplier, AgriCo, who had initially offered to foot the motor drying bill after the flooding, pulled out after hearing the hefty charges involved.
After all these bloopers and financial losses, the council is now back to square one, pinning its hopes on the existing old infrastructure.
Gweru Mayor, Councilor Martin Chivhoko, during the same ordinary council meeting, challenged management to work with available resources to improve water supply and if possible set aside efforts on the new pumps.
Accordingly, Eng. Mhlanga said it is possible as the pumps were installed in three phases, thus the second phase will be skipped rendering the new installed pumps useless for now.
To do so, Eng. Mhlanga said fixing the old pumps could increase the pumping capacity to above 50 megaliters from the current 35.
“We have nine high lift pumps at Gwenoro which were built in phases of three.
“So for now we need to forget about the second phase, which are the new pumps, and build on the first phase so that we can have those three pumps operational and then keep maintaining the other three dresser pumps so that we work with six pumps,” he said.
Eng. Mhlanga also stated that the broken-down pumps only required fabricated bearings, as their bearings are no longer in supply.
The Gweru water crisis has left residents with limited access to clean water, and the council’s missteps have only exacerbated the crisis with city water demand increasing daily as new suburbs sprout.
The council’s inability to address the problem effectively is raising questions about its competence and accountability after spending resources and altering infrastructure based on wrongly prescribed equipment.
In office as Mayors from the time the time the alleged wrong pumps were procured are Dr. Josiah Makombe elected in 2019, Hamutendi Kombayi elected in 2023 and Martin Chivhoko elected in September 2023.
Directors of Engineering supposed to oversee the procurement and installation of the pumps from 2019 are Eng. Robson Manatsa who resigned in 2020, Eng. Mhlanga (Acting Director) before the recruitment of the current Director, Eng. Stores.
The accounting officers, Town Clerks, responsible for managing the local authority affairs during the same period include Elizabeth Gwatipedza fired in 2019; after her dismissal Vakai Douglas Chikwekwe took over on an acting capacity bit later resigned in 2023 before being replaced by the current Acting city boss, Livingston Churu.
As the city’s water challenges continue, one thing is clear: the council must get its act together and find a lasting solution to this critical water crisis in the city.
The local authority’s actions have been labeled as ‘gross incompetence’ by some residents and residents representatives, who are demanding solutions, and accountability for the wasted funds.
