Masvingo Set to Ease Lake Mutirikwi Pollution Woes
Masvingo City Council has completed a $500 000 dedicated power line project to provide uninterrupted electricity supply at its sewer pump stations and treatment plant to reduce rampant pollution in Lake Mutirikwi. The country’s oldest town draws its water from Late Mutirikwi where pollution has reached unprecedented levels owing to incessant discharge of raw sewage into the lake.
The high levels of pollution in the lake had also caused a spike in the amount of chemicals required to treat water from Lake Mutirikwi, which is Masvingo city’s sole water source.
Masvingo town clerk Mr Adolph Gusha yesterday said council had completed installation of a dedicated power line at two sewer pump stations and the treatment plant to curb pollution.
He said the power project was financed through a sewer levy that was introduced by council last year.
“We managed to complete the construction of dedicated power lines at the two sewer pump stations in the city where recurrent power outages were resulting in the discharge of raw sewer into Mucheke River that is a tributary of Lake Mutirikwi,” he said.
“We also constructed a dedicated power line to cater for the sewer treatment plant because our goal was to reduce or stop the continued discharge of sewer that was polluting water in Lake Mutirikwi,” he added.
Mr Gusha said it was now too expensive for the council to treat Lake Mutirikwi water for consumption owing to the high concentration of pollutants in the water.
“We had to increase the number and quantity of water treatment chemicals by adding powdered activated carbon on top of aluminium sulphate and hydrated lime that we normally used because of high pollution levels in Lake Mutirikwi,” he added.
Besides discharge of raw sewer into Lake Mutirikwi, water in the lake was also being polluted by effluent discharged by firms in the Masvingo Industrial area.
Thousands of aquatic animals mainly fish have been dying in Mucheke and Shakashe Rivers — the two major tributaries of Lake Mutirikwi — owing to high levels of pollution.