Bulawayo city council gets $13m loan for water

The Bulawayo City Council (BCC) has secured a $13.3 million loan facility from a local bank to rehabilitate its water systems after the government approved a request to extend its borrowing powers, an official said at the weekend.

The council is seeking to redesign the sewer outlay at Aisle Treatment Works after the pipes at the treatment plant collapsed, leading to the discharge of effluent into Umguza River, one of its catchment rivers.

BCC was recently ordered by the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) to deal with pollution at its water sources and gave the council until next month to fix the problem.

Mayor Martin Moyo said the government approved the request to raise its borrowing powers in July.

“We’ve secured the $13.3 million after government approved our borrowing powers to raise funding from a local financial institution. We’re now at the stage where the Aisle Treatment Works can be redesigned and once we get the design we’ll approach a contractor to undertake the project,” he said.

He refused to name the financial institution, but said it was a local bank and that the tenure and interest rates were favourable to the council.- The Source

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