Vice-President Mujuru yesterday visited the Kirloskar Brothers water pump manufacturing plant at Kirloskarvadi in Sangli District 200km south of here as part of efforts to find a solution to Zimbabwe’s water pumping challenges.

The Kirloskar Brothers Limited manufactures a wide range of water pumps with pumping capacities of between 12 000 and 30 000 litres per second.The plant employs 1 800 people and produces 23 000 pumps per month.

The Zimbabwean delegation was taken through the manufacturing process from iron casting to production of pump components and their assembling.

Vice-President Mujuru commended Kirloskar Brothers, saying the fact that their products were in use in First World countries was testimony that they manufactured quality pumps.

She was also impressed to note that the company produces both small and large pumps, which augurs well for the requirements of the country.

“We have been to one of the Kirloskar Brothers pumping station that supplies irrigation water to a farming area covering 420 square kilometres and that is what we need to get done back home.

“We were not here to invent the wheel because it has already been invented. What is needed is for us to move ahead and tap into this technology,” she said.City of Harare Director Engineering Services Mr Phillip Pfukwa said the Kirloskar Brothers products could hold the solution to the perennial water pumping problems for the country’s major cities such as Harare and Bulawayo.

“What is key in this whole process is that the company manufactures pumps according to a client’s specification.

“The company produces a wide variety of pumps from the biggest pumps, which are suited for Morton Jaffray Water works, to medium plants for Warren Hills and smaller pumps for Letombo pumping station,” he said.

Trium Corporation managing director Reason Chigombe, who is the Kirloskar Brothers representative in Zimbabwe, said the country stands to benefit considerably from its association with the Indian company.

“We have the potential to secure as much as US$250 million to increase and capacitate water pumping capacities for City of Harare and the Zimbabwe National Water Authority,” he said.

He, however, emphasised that there is need for Government to enter into the necessary partnerships with the Indian company to unlock the funding.The Indian government has set aside US$5 billion for investment in Africa.

The visit to the Kirloskar Brothers manufacturing plant by the Vice-President was her last official engagement as she wound up her one-week tour of the Asian economic giant.