Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. The City of Bulawayo may be forced to prolong the 72-hour water-shedding regime due to the low levels of water in the city’s supply dams, reported CITE.
Bulawayo depends on six supply dams, Insiza, Inyankuni, Lower Ncema, Upper Ncema, Umzingwane, and Mtshabezi which are all located in Matabeleland South Province.
Speaking to journalists during a tour of the dams on Friday, Bulawayo City Council (BCC) Corporate Communications Manager Nesisa Mpofu said:
From what we have seen, unfortunately, we must maintain the water shedding because our dams are low.
And, we have to be mindful that sometimes we have electricity outages, which affect the current water schedule and result in some residents spending more time without water.
Sometimes it will be an issue of water pipe bursts. If that occurs, we have to shut down the whole area that is affected until the situation is resolved.
We also need to address the issue of supply of materials. As residents, we have to play our part by paying our bills on time.
Without adequate materials, it becomes difficult to attend to some of the challenges that contribute to water shedding.
The chairperson of the Future Water and Action Committee, Cllr Edwin Sibanda, said that they have forwarded a proposal to the council to buy more pumps as a short-term measure and to build another dam as a medium-term solution to the water shortages. Said Sibanda:
The water situation in the city is very dire. We need to up our game and come up with immediate solutions.
We propose to construct another dam to complement the existing ones. We have seen the water levels, they are very low.
This tour has shown us the water levels in our supply dams and we have seen their capacity but it cannot save the City of Bulawayo which has grown over the years.
So as the Future Water and Action Committee, we propose that we construct a new dam. We currently have a proposal to construct the Glass Block dam in Filabusi which could supply at least 70 percent of our water requirements in the city. So basically that is our short to medium-term plan.
Secondly, we need to buy new pumps. At Umzingwane only one out of four pumps is working. We do have water but our pumping capacity is below what we require.
The short term can be getting new pumps and the medium term can be the construction of a new dam.
The pumping system needs to be improved as a matter of urgency and we also need to pray that we can get better rains so that the water level can improve.
In the previous council, it was said that the water that is left may sustain us for six months only but according to the law we need to leave a certain amount of water that will keep aqua life alive so technically speaking the water might not even reach the six months. We are in serious trouble as a city if we do not get enough rain.
Meanwhile, meteorologists say Zimbabwe is likely to receive less than average rainfall leading to a drought in the 2023/24 rainy season due to the El Niño climate phenomenon.
The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) recently said the ongoing El Niño event is expected to last at least until April 2024.
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