BULAWAYO City Council should not be faulted for water woes bedevilling the city as the government has failed to construct dams as mandated by the country’s Water Act, the local authority has said.
A 1998 amendment of the Water Act gives the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) the mandate to construct dams and provide water to municipalities.
Bulawayo, which lies in the arid southern Matabeleland region, is facing serious water shortages with residents going for more than a week without supplies.
A 1998 amendment of the Water Act gives the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) the mandate to construct dams and provide water to municipalities.
Bulawayo, which lies in the arid southern Matabeleland region, is facing serious water shortages with residents going for more than a week without supplies.
Bulawayo has faced perennial water problems for more than two decades during which both residents and the city fathers have pinned their hopes on an ambitious project to draw water from the Zambezi River.
The Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project (MZWP), a long held plan to tap water from the Zambezi River through the construction of a 450km pipeline to arid Matabeleland, was mooted way back in 1912.
Council spokesperson Nesisa Mpofu said the city’s woes could have been alleviated had it not been for the Water Act which did not allow the local authority to construct dams.
