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Vusumuzi Dube, Municipal Reporter
THE Bulawayo City Council’s endeavour to address major water infrastructure rehabilitation problem is now at an advanced stage, with most programmes identified by the local authority now nearing completion, an official has revealed.
The various projects under the Bulawayo Water and Sewerage Services Improvement Project (BWSIP) facility are being funded under an African Development Bank facility. In an interview on the sidelines of a tour of some of the project sites on Friday, the city’s director of engineering services, Engineer Simela Dube said they were satisfied with the progress of the projects and were confident that upon completion they would go a long way in improving the city’s water and sanitation standards.
“As a city we are working on a major project funded by the AfDB though the Government of Zimbabwe, the project’s main focus is on improving water supplies and also improving sanitation conditions in the city. This entire project is 25 percent of the requirements of the city’s water and sanitation projects in terms of the master plan which was launched in 2013,” said Eng Dube.
During the tour, Eng Dube noted that the major project of the four, which is the rehabilitation works at Criterion water works, was now nearing completion with projections that the rehabilitated plant will be commissioned by the end of the year.
“Today (Friday), we focused on four major projects, which are; Criterion water works, the Southern Areas Sewerage treatment works, the water mains upgrading and Cowdray Park Outfall sewer project. In Criterion the project is nearing completion and our hope is that before the end of the year the project will be commissioned. In this project we are looking at the improvement of treatment capacity for us to be able to manage the treatment flows.
“We have replaced the valves, automated the control panels which will improve easy management by our engineers on site. Ultimately there is also upgrading of the pumping system, which project we expect to come onboard, in terms of installation in February 2020, currently the pumps are under manufacture,” he said.
The rehabilitation at Criterion water works saw the local authority, last month, being forced to cut water supplies in the city for over two weeks. Eng Dube also castigated some residents who are disposing large gadgets in some of the manholes, causing unnecessary sewer blockages that were costing the city.
Meanwhile, Eng Dube revealed that while the city recently suspended its 48-hour water shedding regime, they would be forced to further tighten the water rationing levels as daily water consumption had since skyrocketed amid indications that one of its supply dams, Umzingwane is set to be decommissioned in October. This will be the second dam to be decommissioned after Upper Ncema, which was decommissioned a couple of months ago.
“We need our stakeholders to be part of us in this programme. We have continuously spoke of water conservation for us to continue supplying water. We removed water shedding as from last Monday but what is worrying is that daily consumption has suddenly shot up reaching close to 170 megalitres a day but we are hoping people will adjust to the ultimate 130 mega litres a day so that we continue fulfilling our mandate of supplying our residents with water after the rehabilitation of our treatment works.”
Bongani Ndlovu