adminBULAWAYO residents could soon experience another drastic water shedding regime, amid revelations that the Bulawayo City Council last month stopped using one of its major supply dams with another set to be decommissioned by January next year.
With the Meteorological Department of Zimbabwe predicting that the country is likely to receive normal to below normal rainfall during the 2015-16 farming season, this could have far reaching effects on the city’s water situation.
Two years ago residents had to endure a minimum of 96 hours a week without any water supplies as the municipality tried to spread the available water supplies. Although the local authority has not officially decommissioned one of their supply dams — Upper Ncema — they stopped drawing from it last month after it reached critical levels, with another supply dam — Umzingwane — set to be decommissioned at the beginning of January.
According to a council report, the city is currently operating on five out of six supply dams as Upper Ncema water levels fell to below the minimum of 10 percent capacity. The dam is currently 3,79 percent full.
Umzingwane Dam is also at critical levels at 12,64 percent with the council reporting that it will be depleted by next month and subsequently decommissioned in January.
By the same period last year, Upper Ncema was 49,46 percent full while Umzingwane dam was 51,6 percent full. Only one supply dam — Lower Ncema — has improved levels compared to last year, as most of the dams are slowly reaching critical levels. Lower Ncema is 71,31 percent full compared to last year when it was 54,92 percent full.
Overall, the city’s supply dams are now 46,11 percent full as compared to last year when they were 70,96 percent full. Mtshabezi Dam — whose pipeline was recently commissioned by Vice-President Cde Emmerson Mnangagwa — has the highest capacity at 76,15 percent but this also falls short of last year’s figure when it was 99,49 percent full during the same period.
Insiza Mayfair Dam is currently 65,83 percent full, of which last year during the same period it was 94,07 percent full. Inyankuni Dam is 21,03 percent full compared to last year when it was 29,39 percent full.
Confirming these developments, BCC senior public relations officer Mrs Nesisa Mpofu said the local authority was closely monitoring the developments and residents will soon be advised on the appropriate interventions.
She further called on residents to conserve water, noting that the weather focus was not favourable.
The city introduced the water shedding exercise in July 2012 in a bid to conserve the limited supplies in the city’s supply dams. The Mtshabezi-Umzingwane pipeline link project was viewed as a short-term solution to the city’s perennial water problems together with the drilling of new boreholes at Epping Forest. The long term solution to the city’s water problems is considered to be the Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project.
The Ministry of Water, Climate and Environment recently announced that the city will soon be constructing a new dam at Glassblock in Matabeleland South, which is expected to cost an estimated $208 million.
derick.khumalo
Online Reporter