Chronicle Editor
Government has said Bulawayo’s remaining three supply dams can last the city 11 months without any water rationing so council should concentrate on improving its capacity to pump and deliver water to residents.
It is misleading for council to claim that the present crisis which has seen residents going for weeks without water is as a result of low water levels in the city’s supply dams.
Government has made it very clear that the crisis in Bulawayo is as a result of the council’s failure to invest in bulk water delivery system. It is the council’s limited pumping capacity that is to blame for the present crisis and there is therefore, an urgent need to address this problem.
Council is being economic with the truth when it alleges that when it rains and fill up the dams, normal supplies will resume because the crisis has nothing to do with the amount of water in our supply dams which, as already alluded to, is enough to last the city 11 months even if it does not rain.
Council is pumping just 94ML against a daily demand of 155ML and that is the problem that should be addressed, it has nothing to do with dams filling up.
Government recently availed $205 million to improve Bulawayo’s water supplies and the bulk of this money should be channelled towards upgrading the city’s water pumping infrastructure.
Bulawayo, like many other cities and towns now facing water shortages, has not upgraded its water reticulation system to meet its growing population hence this crisis.
Government recently spent $18 million on the rehabilitation of the Nyamandlovu boreholes but as already stated, it is not the water that the city does not have but limited capacity to move the water to the residents. We want at this juncture to implore the city fathers to prioritise expanding the city’s pumping capacity to enable it to pump 155ML a day which is what the city needs.
The obtaining situation whereby residents are going for weeks without water and do not know when next they will receive supplies is unacceptable. There is a need to speed up implementation of projects to increase water pumped from Mtshabezi and Insiza dams.
Bulawayo’s water supply situation does not even warrant implementation of a water shedding programme and what is even worrying is that council which came up with this programme which residents have accepted, is failing to abide by it.
We want to once again call on the council to ensure residents have safe and clean drinking water to avoid outbreak of water-borne diseases.
The city recently recorded 13 deaths from typhoid which has been blamed on the city’s water rationing. We should avoid more deaths because there is adequate water in the city’s supply dams.
Online Reporter