Online Reporter
GWERU City Council (GCC) like many urban councils is failing to meet the city’s daily water demand forcing it to ration water. The city’s daily water consumption is more than 60 megalitres but it can only pump about 40 megalitres.
The council’s water reticulation infrastructure has not been expanded correspondingly with the growing population hence the local authority is failing to pump enough water to meet the city’s demand.
What has also worsened the situation is the ageing infrastructure which has resulted in a lot of water being lost to leakages and burst pipes.
There is therefore an urgent need to replace the old pipes and also upgrade the water reticulation system to increase its pumping capacity.
The other challenge facing the city is the dwindling water levels at its supply dams which are Gwenoro, Amapongokwe and Whitewaters.
In a bid to address the problem of residents that have gone for years without municipal water, Government recently commissioned water kiosks in Makoba 4 and 20.
These kiosks are supplied water from boreholes which are solar powered. Government has said this is a stopgap measure while long-term solutions are being worked on.
There is an urgent need to find alternative sources of water for Gweru given the fast dwindling water levels at the city’s major supply dam, Gwenoro.
Gweru might need to drill many boreholes to augment its water supplies and Government should move in to assist with resources like what it did for Bulawayo.
Government drilled 60 boreholes at Rochester and Epping Forest in Nyamandlovu to boost Bulawayo’s water supplies and similar investment is needed in Gweru.
Gwenoro Dam’s holding capacity has been drastically reduced due to siltation hence the urgent need to find alternative water sources for the fast growing city.
What is encouraging is that GCC has announced that it is already upgrading its water reticulation infrastructure to reduce leakages and burst pipes.
According to the Mayor, Councillor Martin Chivhoko, council is working on upgrading its water infrastructure in order to expand its water distribution network and also reduce leakages and burst pipes.
He said the local authority was adopting new technologies to monitor and manage its water distribution.
We want to once again implore Government to assist council to find alternative sources of water for the city before the situation deteriorates to a crisis.
