Online Reporter
Vusumuzi Dube, Deputy Radar Editor
THE Bulawayo City Council (BCC) has been tasked with reassessing the viability and feasibility of using wastewater from the Aiselby wastewater treatment plant, as well as that from the decommissioned Khami Dam for domestic consumption.
The initiative is viewed as a potential short-term solution to the ongoing water crisis plaguing the city.
According to a report by the Joint Portfolio Committee on Local Government, Public Works, National Housing and the Thematic Committee on Sustainable Development Goals on the state of water supply in Bulawayo, the local authority has been given till the end of the year to consider this option.
It was established that the decommissioned Khami Dam, although polluted from wastewater contamination, bears a significant potential for addressing the water challenge through instituting technology for reclaiming the wastewater for domestic consumption.
“Bulawayo City Council must explore the viability and feasibility of utilising waste water from the Aiselby waste water treatment plant and the water at the decommissioned Khami Dam for domestic consumption by 31 December 2025.
“Reclaiming wastewater for domestic use is an economically viable option to aid Bulawayo to address the water crisis in the short to medium term. The committee observes that countries such as Namibia’s Windhoek City have been utilising wastewater recycling for domestic consumption,” reads the report.
The two committees conducted public hearings and verification visits in the city from 23 to 25 September last year, with the oral evidence received from different stakeholders engaged to come up with a comprehensive report on the state of water supply in Bulawayo.
“As the industrial hub and city of national commercial activities and the route to Zimbabwe from a number of southern African countries, Bulawayo plays a pivotal role in advancing the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1 and 2) and ultimately achieving Vision 2030 of attaining an upper middle-income economy. Tackling the long-standing issues of water supply is long overdue,” reads part of the report.
The report further states that it is critical to start thinking about water recycling in times of crisis, such as the one facing the City of Bulawayo.
The committee further observed that the city is currently facing a severe shortage of raw water, which is being exacerbated by rampant illegal gold panning in the city’s Umzingwane Dam catchment area.
“It becomes a fundamental endeavour for all responsible authorities to address the disaster that has been brought by illegal gold panning along river basins, especially along Umzingwane River. While the Committee takes cognisance of the August 2024 directive banning all riverbed alluvial mining, significant and deliberate efforts to enforce the ban need to be taken to protect the precious water basins.
“The Ministry of Mines and Mining Development, the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Fisheries and Rural Resettlements and the Ministry of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage must enforce the August 2024 ban on all alluvial river bed gold mining along Umzingwane River by 31 December 2025,” reads the report.
Regarding the proposed construction of the Glassblock Dam, the committee noted that while this was a noble initiative to address the Bulawayo water crisis in the medium term, the astronomical charge of water proposed by the Glassblock consortium of US$0.99 cents per mega litre will have a catastrophic impact on the water billing system of Bulawayo, causing severe overcharges on the end users.
“Although the committee gathered that the consortium was working around the modalities of reducing the US$0.99 cents charge per mega litre of water to US$0.50 per mega litre, the US$0.50 is still too high compared to the current US$0.33 cents per mega litre charged by Zinwa.
“It is imperative that the arrangement of the water service charge be significantly revised before making any headway towards giving the project the green light. Water is a basic human right and should not be commercialised in any way whatsoever to the detriment of its access by the citizenry,” reads the report.
Among the other recommendations, the local authority, through a well-coordinated multi-stakeholder approach involving communities in Nyamandlovu, farmers, Bulawayo City Council security personnel and the police have been implored to ensure the safety and protection of transformers pumping borehole water within the Nyamandlovu aquifer area by 31 July 2025.
The local authority has also been called upon to strengthen its revenue collection efforts on water tariffs and sewer and ring-fence such revenue for repairs and maintenance of the water reticulation system and sewer infrastructure to reduce non-revenue water losses by 31 December 2025.
The use of water from Khami Dam has, over the years, been subject to controversy with residents constantly rejecting its use, arguing that the water is heavily polluted, hence not safe for domestic consumption.
Khami Dam was built in 1928 but decommissioned in 1988. The water at Khami is 100 percent stagnant and the algae that form turn it into a green colour.
The idea to recycle Khami Water was first mooted in 1996 by the then city engineer, George Mlilo but was continuously rejected by the city’s residents.
Council is under pressure to provide adequate water to residents following dwindling water levels at the city’s six supply dams, Insiza, Mtshabezi, Umzingwane, Inyankuni, Lower and Upper Ncema which are all in Matabeleland South Province.
Currently, residents are enduring a 130-hour water shedding schedule.
