City suburbs go without water due to Criterion Water Works repairs

Temba Dube Senior Reporter
AT least 10 Bulawayo suburbs in the western areas will experience extended water shedding next week due to repairs at Criterion Water Works.
Areas to be affected are Luveve, Gwabalanda, Emakhandeni, Pumula, Cowdray Park, Entumbane, Lobengula, Pelandaba, Mpopoma and Njube.

Instead of getting water on Wednesday morning as is norm under the 72 hour weekly water shedding schedule, the suburbs are expected to get water much later.

In a statement yesterday, the Bulawayo City Council’s senior public relations officer, Mrs Nesisa Mpofu, said the local authority would be carrying out valve replacement at the Criterion Clear Water Supply Reservoir on Monday.

“This is likely to affect reservoir levels at Magwegwe Distribution Reservoir resulting in possible delays on the water returning to suburbs on Wednesday from Magwegwe Reservoir. Bulawayo City Council wishes to apologise to its valued consumers for the inconvenience likely to be caused. Consumers are also requested to conserve water so as to minimise the impact,” said Mrs Mpofu.

Water levels in the city’s supply dams continue to dwindle.

According to statistics released by the local authority, as of Tuesday, the city’s supply dams, Insiza, Umzingwane, Lower Ncema, Upper Ncema, Inyankuni and Mtshabezi, held about 47 percent of their combined capacity of 414 627700 cubic metres of water.

Upper Ncema Dam was recently decommissioned due to low water levels.

The local authority revealed that pumping from Mtshabezi Dam was still way below projected capacity as the city was receiving an average of 6 000 cubic metres daily, against the expected capacity of about 17 000 cubic metres.

The statistics show that by 21 April, only Insiza Dam had received inflows, which were insignificant, from the recently ended rainy season.

Experts have said Bulawayo is often misrepresented as a water shortage area, saying the city had plenty of underground water.

The experts have called for more investment into means of harnessing the available water for use by the city.