Chronicle Editor
Water is a valuable resource that can be used, then cleaned and used again.
Recycling and re-using water is the way to go in a world that has been ravaged by climate change. It is the responsible thing to do.
It was, therefore, sad to report yesterday that Bulawayo City Council (BCC) has since shelved a study to determine whether recycled Khami Dam water can be suitable for drinking.
The Covid-19-induced halt to the study, will be met with joy and jubilation by a section of residents that is totally against recycling water.
Such residents maintain the water has too many pollutants that include industrial chemicals and human waste.
Khami Dam was decommissioned as one of Bulawayo’s supply dams between 1987/88 after sewer seeped into the dam.
However, no scientific study has dismissed the water as unusable. Any conclusion on the utility of Khami Dam that is not based on science is a dangerous conclusion.
Luxuries must always be backed by adequate finances. Residents who survive on mineral water know this.
Residents receiving tap water for only 12 hours in a week do not have the luxury of dismissing Khami Dam water without any scientific explanation.
Recycling of Khami Dam water is part of the city’s medium-term plan towards addressing the worsening Bulawayo water crisis, while BCC has always insisted modern purification processes can bring the water to World Health Organisation standards for potability.
Even if recycled Khami Dam water is found to be below standard, it can still be used for watering gardens, bathing and flushing toilets. This is where the city is losing the bulk of its water.
Residents are so used to watering their lawns, showering and flushing with treated water. All those expensive chemicals gone down the drain, literally.
We believe that this study requiring an additional US$600 000 is paramount in that it could be the first step towards separating water for drinking and cooking from water for gardening and flushing toilets.
Treating water for drinking is expensive. Millions of dollars can be saved if laundry, gardening, washing cars and fighting fires is done with either raw or recycled but not fully treated water.
Recycling means we will have extra water available in case of drought. It will also help in ensuring water availability in light of a growing population.
This is the way to go in a world that is fast running out of water.
However, the buy-in of residents remains critical. Council cannot go it alone. Residents must be made to realise the long-term benefits of water preservation.
As Zimbabwe National Water Authority chief executive officer Engineer Taurai Maurikira said in an interview recently:
“Recycling of water is technology that is implemented worldwide. It’s a global way of handling water shortage but it really needs analysis to see how feasible it is. It’s quite an expensive operation and what that means is that the financial demands might outstrip the benefits thereof. It’s quite a balancing act that we need to undertake, an analysis as well of the acceptability of recycling within communities.”
Online Reporter