Zimbabwe:
Urban Water and Sanitation Programme (UWSP)

Disciplines

  • Sanitation
  • Water Supply

Companies

Dorsch International Consultants

Client

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)

Duration

From 2013 to 2015

Project Activities

During this project services were provided for the operational and technical management with focus on the detailed assessments of the existing infrastructure, the determination of the major bottlenecks and the development and implementation of improvement strategies which included amongst others:

  • Water (Treatment, Transmission, Distribution and Storage)
  • Wastewater (Collection and Treatment)
  • Solid Waste (Management and Civil works)
  • Non-Revenue Water Reduction

Contact

Dorsch International Consultants GmbH

München (Headquarters)
Landsberger Str. 368
80687 München
Germany

Phone: +49 89 5797-0
Fax: +49 89 5797-800
E-Mail: info@dorsch.de

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Description

The project was funded by the BMZ and executed through GIZ with the aim to improve the Water Supply and Sanitation (WSS) systems and solid waste management of selected medium-sized towns in Zimbabwe.  This was needed due to the a dramatic drop in economic performance and a widespread breakdown of the public services between 2000 and 2009 affecting public water supply and sanitation service providers.
Water infrastructure including treatment plants and pumping stations were seriously dilapidated and the supply of safe drinking water and sanitation services was severely limited. In June 2008, the collapse of basic water supply and sanitation infrastructure triggered a national outbreak of cholera and had a serious negative impact on women and girls as they are typically responsible for obtaining drinking water and nursing the sick and elderly.
The strategic project concept was to change the management of WSS systems from a downward to an upward trend by improving income as a result of delivering better service and increasing the willingness to pay. The focus was on restoring WSS services to a situation where drinking water is supplied regularly/daily, sewage is not flowing in the streets, and refuse is removed regularly to the satisfaction of the customer.
The project was clustered around three strategic key areas, where towns need support for the improvement of their WSS systems.

  • The objective of the first strategic key area was to improve the reliability and achieve universal, equitable and affordable access to basic water supply and adequate sanitation services as well as solid management in the towns.
  • The objective of strategic key area 2 was to improve billing and revenue collection, and the overall financial management of the WSS systems.
  • The objective of strategic key area 3 was to assist the participating towns in the development and regular updating of WSS recovery plans.

A fourth component addressed the central government agencies through support and advisory services to relevant ministries and other central water sector institutions on request.