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World Bank pledges US$3 million for Beit Bridge

 
The World Bank has pledged US$3 million to rehabilitate the Beit Bridge water and sewer reticulation system, to avert a fresh cholera outbreak in the border town.

The Beit Bridge Town Secretary, Dr Sipho Singo, said the move by the World Bank follows a meeting with officials from the financial institution over the water situation in the border town. “We submitted our proposal to the World Bank, together with several other local authorities in the country, and Beit Bridge was subsequently chosen as priority area to receive funds, due to its strategic location,” he said.

Singo added that a team from the World Bank would soon visit the town to assess the sewer and water reticulation system, with the aim of exploring key areas that require urgent attention. “We realised that Beit Bridge was among the worst-hit towns during the cholera outbreak, largely due to poor water supply and constant sewer bursts, which even saw raw effluent flowing into the Limpopo River and contaminating it,” he said.

The Limpopo River is an international source of water, which caters for residents of Beit Bridge and Musina.

“We hope that when the money is eventually made available, the perennial water woes that continue to dog residents of this town will be a thing of the past. We also intend to plough our sewer farms situated along the Limpopo River, so that we are able to capture sewer water and subsequently prevent it from flowing directly into the Limpopo River,” he said.

Beit Bridge was hit by a serious water shortage late last week, following a burst in the main pipeline linking the supply dam and the reservoir. Long, winding queues of people could be seen at several strategic areas where boreholes were drilled by non-governmental organisations at the height of the cholera outbreak in November last year. The disease spilled over into South Africa, prompting the department of water and forestry to chip in and assist the neighbouring country in containing the situation.

Residents of Beit Bridge require at least 15 000 cubic metres of water daily, but the dilapidated local water treatment plant has a capacity to pump only 5 000 cubic metres per day, resulting in some sections of the town not accessing tap water.

In Dulibadzimu suburb, the main residential area in the town, residents have not been receiving dependable water supplies for the past three years.

News - Date: 13 November 2009

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Mashudu Netsianda

Mashudu Netsianda is our correspondent in Beit Bridge, Zimbabwe. He joined us in 2006, writing both local and international stories. He had worked for several Zimbabwean publications, as well as the Times of Swaziland. Mashudu received his training at the School of Mass Communication in Harare.

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