Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. City of Bulawayo mayor, His Worship Solomon Mguni, said that the local authority intends to do away with water rationing earlier than expected but this is being hindered by current power outages.
In a message to Bulawayo residents this Tuesday, Mguni said the regular power outages continue to destabilise and disrupt sensitive reservoirs such as Tuli and Magwegwe which caused them to collapse on Sunday. He said:
I am happy to note that it is City’s intention to suspend water-shedding earlier than scheduled.
However, the current and regular power outages continue to disrupt continuous pumping, destabilizing some of the sensitive reservoirs such as Tuli and Magwegwe.
On the 21st of February 2021, the City experienced the highest water consumption of 167ML/day, a spike that coupled with a power outage at both Fernhill and Cowdray Park, resulted in the Tuli and Magwegwe reservoirs collapsing.
Mguni urged residents to use water sparingly and to adhere to set water rationing allocation limits.
He warned residents that failure to conserve water at this critical juncture will leave the City Fathers with no other option but to revert back to strict water rationing. Said Mguni:
Residents are therefore being urged to continue to conserve water, sticking to the daily allocations so as to enable the system to remain stable and supply everyone with water.
Failure to adhere to set water rationing allocation limits will result in punitive penalties.
It is also important to note that if the system continues to experience above normal water consumption, the City will revert back to a shedding regime that will help stabilize the network to match supply vs overall City consumption.
