COMMENT: Hats off to BCC for upgrading its water pumping capacity

BULAWAYO City Council should be commended for upgrading its pumping capacity to meet the city’s daily water consumption. The Council said this week that it has completed the final phase of the rehabilitation of the Criterion Water Works which has increased its pumping capacity to 180ML a day against the city’s daily consumption of 150 ML.

The city has been pumping far less than its daily consumption hence the water rationing which has been in place for years. Bulawayo, like most urban councils, had not upgraded its water pumping capacity to meet the demand of the growing population.

We, therefore, would like to commend the city fathers for taking such a bold step which guarantees adequate water to its residents and the business sector. In some cities and towns, new suburbs have gone for years without municipal water and this is not acceptable.

There is therefore, an urgent need for such cities and towns to address this shortcoming as what Bulawayo has done. The cities and towns should pump enough water to meet their respective daily consumption hence the urgent need to upgrade the water reticulation infrastructure.

Now that Bulawayo is pumping more than its daily consumption, companies that had relocated to other cities and towns due to the city’s water shortages, should return.

President Mnangagwa recently commissioned the Epping Forest water project which boosted the city’s daily water supplies and work on the Gwayi-Shangani Dam to Bulawayo pipeline which guarantees adequate water to the city for years to come, is expected to start soon.

Bulawayo has every reason to boast as the country’s best investment destination given its strategic position in the southern African region. The shortage of water has been the city’s major stumbling block in its efforts to attract investors and regain its status as the country’s industrial hub.

Agro-based industries are not only guaranteed reliable water in Bulawayo but adequate raw materials as farmers are this year expecting a bumper harvest as a result of the good rains. The city used to have a number of food processing industries which can be revived now that the city has adequate water and the country is expecting a bumper harvest.

We have said it before that now that Bulawayo has adequate water, the council should aggressively market the city as an investment destination of choice. It should also come up with incentives to attract investors as well as create an enabling environment.

The city, as already alluded to, is strategically positioned especially for those industries that want to produce for exports. The Second Republic is convinced that Bulawayo is poised for industrial growth and as such is committing a lot of resources to enable the city to meet new investors’ demands.

The city should therefore, not be found wanting when it comes to providing services to new and old investors. The thrust now should be on enhancing ease of doing business and this is only possible if council and relevant Government departments understand and appreciate investors’ expectations. Bulawayo should in fact, brace for an industrial boom given the positive indicators already shown this year.