Communities must always register their boreholes before use

THE Lower Gwayi Sub-Catchment Council (LGSCC), a statutory water management body that administers water bodies in Matabeleland North province, has reiterated the need for communities to ensure that their boreholes are registered before use.

LGSCC was established by an Act of Parliament, the Water Act of 1998 (Chapter 20:24) under the auspices of the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement.

It manages water in the Gwayi Catchment.

Lower Gwayi Sub-Catchment is a river basin that lies between south of the Zambezi River and Gwayi River and cuts across three administrative districts, Hwange, Binga and the north of upane District.

The Sub-catchment is subdivided into micro-catchments, namely Matetsi, Deka, Lukosi, Mpongola, Inyantue, Manzasiya, Sebungwe, Lungwalala, Nagapande-Mlibizi, Manyanda, Siambolo, Sikalala-Mulindi, Muchesu and Masumu and oversees all water bodies, including underground water.

Its key stakeholders are Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa), Environmental Management Agency (EMA), urban and rural local authorities, non-governmental organisations (NGO) and other businesses such as hotels and mines that use bulk water.

Its mission is to be an organisation where all stakeholders have access to safe and sufficient water resources that meet their needs in ways that maintain the integrity of the freshwater ecosystem.

It has a water resources and outreach department, which is the implementing arm of the Sub-Catchment Council and carries out most of the technical functions, including water use registration, dam maintenance, surface and groundwater monitoring and management, chief among them catchment protection.

The other department is Finance and Administration, which handles all financial issues, including payments and account queries and administrative issues.

Each department has its own specific functions to help achieve the same goals for the Sub-Catchment Council.

In its latest statement, the council said drilling a borehole without the knowledge and approval of the authority was a prosecutable offence.

“Ensure that you seek authority first before you drill a borehole and permit to abstract and store from any river source. Drilling a borehole without authority is a prosecutable offence for both the owner and driller and bowsing water without a permit is an offence,” reads the statement.

“All water bowsing companies and individuals should make sure that their sources of water have a permit and are regularised.

“All bowsers must be registered, inspected and approved by Zimbabwe National Water Authority and Sub-Catchment can facilitate the registration process.”

Water is classified for primary use or commercial use and any other use except for primary use requires a permit and this applies to both surface and underground water, the council said.

Any storage works of more than 5 000 cubic metres for primary use requires a permit while less than that requires notification to the council.

The amount of water that can be abstracted for primary purposes is limited by the catchment council.

Permits can be obtained from the nearest office and an agricultural report from a local extension officer is required for agricultural use of water.

A mining engineer’s report is required for those in mining.

The council is there to recommend and consider the application while the water permit is valid for a period of 20 years.

“Groundwater is an important resource in Zimbabwe since the rural population relies on it for profitable water supply. It is in light of this that water permit regulations and guidelines for boreholes, groundwater monitoring and use were formulated, said the council.

Groundwater development involves siting, drilling and construction. — @ncubeleon