adminTHE Bulawayo City Council (BCC) requires over $190 million to address the problem of water leakages, with a number of suburbs reportedly experiencing perennial water cuts owing to pipe bursts or leakages.
According to figures provided by the local authority, the city requires urgent funding of up to $125 million in the short term and $67 million in the long term, with the City Fathers acknowledging that the current piping infrastructure — especially in the old suburbs — was now obsolete and required replacement.
BCC senior public relations officer Mrs Nesisa Mpofu revealed most of the pipes had outlived their life-span.
“The city has a total water network of 1 772,7km in terms of the pipe network that needs to be replaced at a total cost of $193 467 176, of that figure, $125 622 352 is required urgently while $67 844 824 is required in the long term.
“The current piping infrastructure in the old suburbs ranges from over 50 years to 75 years depending on the age of that particular suburb hence the need for a complete overhaul,” said Mrs Mpofu.
She also revealed that the city was experiencing about three to five water bursts per day and between 50 to 80 water leaks a day.
In a recent interview, BCC director of engineering services Engineer Simela Dube said the council was struggling to deal with leaks in the city as they were being forced to use substandard material due to financial challenges.
“There is a backlog in leaks repairs as our staff has to use substandard material to repair the leaks. Council stores are lying idle as all the stocks have been consumed. The call centre has become dysfunctional due to lack of resources.
“In most cases leaks that are recorded at the call centre are attended to on time if the materials are readily available,” said Eng Dube.
It was recently reported that 60 percent of pumped water in the country is going unaccounted due to the increased number of leaks in the water infrastructure.
These revelations by the local authority come at a time when the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing and the office of the Auditor-General, a couple of months ago, ordered an immediate audit of the city’s production and distribution of water.
The exercise was reportedly meant to ensure value for money for residents and ensure that council was not unnecessarily billing residents for water they were not using or which was being lost in leaks and pipe bursts.
Commenting on the investigation, Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Minister Dr Ignatius Chombo confirmed the exercise, noting that they simply wanted to ensure that water was not being abused by the council.
He said they had noted that a huge percentage of the water was going unaccounted for and if this was found to be the case the council risked possible penalties.
“We want to make sure that water is not being unnecessarily wasted and residents are paying for what they consume. For some time we have been crying about inadequate water supplies, when instead our water is not being managed well, which is the reason of this audit, we want to see whether the process of producing and distributing water is above board.
“Besides the management of the distribution patterns we want to ensure that the production itself is safe for the residents to ensure good health,” said Dr Chombo.
Online Reporter