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Redcliff Appeals For Govt Intervention In Setting Up Us$45 Million Water Treatment Plant

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Monday, February 24th, 2020
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REDCLIFF Municipality is planning to construct a US$45 million water treatment plant so as to bring relief to the dry steelworks suburb.

Town Clerk Gilson Chakauya last week told Midlands Provincial Affairs Minister Larry Mavhima during a tour of Redcliff Projects that the local authority was determined to have its own water authority.

Redcliff relies on Kwekwe City for water supplies since it is not a water authority.

The arrangement, however, has left residents hard hit as water supplies to the suburb from Kwekwe have not only been erratic but also expensive.

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“Our major challenge here in Redcliff is the issue of water supply from Kwekwe. On a monthly basis we are receiving inflated figures from Kwekwe,” Mayor Clayton Masiyatsva said.

Redcliff, following a recent part payment of a debt owed to the tiny authority by government, also settled some of its debts to Kwekwe City Council.

However, the debt has since again risen to $2 million.

To arrest the situation, Chakauya said a sustainable plan needed to be put in place.

“What we need is to have a sustainable solution to the water situation in Redcliff. We have since conducted a feasibility study on having a water treatment plant as a local authority,” Chakauya said.

He, however, indicated that funds were proving a challenge in kick-starting the process, hence the need for government intervention.

 “After the conducting of feasibility studies, we realised that we need US$45 million to construct our own water treatment plant. To make this a possibility, we are in urgent need of government intervention,” Chakauya said. Redcliff in 2018 dumped a $15 million deal reached with a Hungarian investor which was aimed at alleviating the water shortages in the former steelworks suburb.

A council resolution then indicated the deal was, “not in the best interest of the residents”.

The deal would have seen Redcliff securing low cost piped water from Cactus Poorte located about 3km from Redcliff.

Mayor Masiyatsva told NewZimbabwe.com the Hungarian agreement was not in the interest of residents.

He said Cactus did not have the capacity to meet the town’s needs.

“After we conducted feasibility studies, we came to the conclusion that the deal was not feasible,” he said.

“Our top priority is to ensure that residents have a consistent supply of clean and portable water to residents for at least 3 years, a situation which is not sustainable.

“Therefore, the deal needs to be revisited. What we need is a sustainable solution to the problem. We are, therefore, going to look for other means of how we can have a water treatment plant of our own,” he said.

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