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Yesterday, city councillors led by Deputy Mayor Amen Mpofu, held a closed-door meeting with Minister Sipepa Nkomo, Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani Khupe and the MDC-T provincial leader-ship to brief them on the water situation in the city.
Briefing journalists at a Press conference after the closed-door meeting, the party’s provincial chairperson Mr Gorden Moyo said his party had declared the water situation a disaster and wanted Minister Sipepa Nkomo to present the issue to Government.
“We met to deliberate on a number of issues and the main agenda was the water situation in Bulawayo. After the implementation of the 72-hour water shedding schedule, we felt as a party that there is a challenge and we wanted to know the gravity of the situation,” said Mr Moyo.
He said the party had agreed to pressurise the Minister to adopt the decision.
“Minister Sipepa Nkomo talked about the donors who have come in to help solve the crisis and as a party we advised him that we want these measures implemented so that the council delivers on its mandate. As a party we have taken an interest in the issues affecting the people of Bulawayo at the moment and we are declaring the Bulawayo water situation a national disaster.
“We understand that when you declare a national disaster zone you are inviting various players inclduing those from outside the country into the system and it is now up to Government to do it. We do not have a locus standi as a party, which is why we are saying to the minister, can you go to Government and say this. The measures he has come up with are mitigatory but for them to be fully implemented the situation needs to be declared a national disaster,” said Mr Moyo.
He said his party’s duty on the water situation would be to intervene and ensure Government prioritises the water situation.
Briefing the party leadership, Minister Sipepa Nkomo said the situation in Bulawayo was reflective of the general state of water supply throughout the country.
“What, however, makes the Bulawayo water situation unique is that there is no bulk raw water while other cities suffer from poor water and sewer treatment infrastructure that makes them unable to treat and efficiently distribute adequate water.
“The rationale for declaring a state of emergency is that you want to mobilise resources from external sources when you have not managed to do so from your own national coffers and domestic private capital. In the case of Bulawayo, the emergency programme that we will be rolling out in earnest has been adequately funded by our cooperating partners.
“The Mtshabezi project is adequately funded by Treasury and the National Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project has received the required funding from the East. Therefore, we will not declare a state of emergency for the sake of it when we have already mobilised the required funding,” said Minister Sipepa Nkomo.
He said they had drawn up a budget for the rehabilitation of the Nyamandlovu Aquifer, putting in place a dedicated power back up in Cowdray Park and rehabilitating boreholes in the city.
Minister Sipepa Nkomo last week met stakeholders and donors in Bulawayo and announced that the city had found investors to fund a project that is set to increase the pumping of water from Nyamandlovu Aquifer from 5 000 to about 30 000 cubic meters a day.
In a bid to stretch supplies to the next rainy season, Bulawayo introduced a 48-hour weekly water shedding schedule for all suburbs on 27 July.
Last week, the hours were increased to 72 hours a week as supplies in the dams continued to dwindle.
Two of the five supply dams — Upper Ncema and Umzingwane have been decommissioned.
Lower Ncema and Inyankuni are likely to follow before the end of the year leaving Insiza Dam as the city’s only supply dam.
The Mtshabezi-Umzingwane pipeline that is largely viewed as the short term solution to Bulawayo’s water problems has missed many completion deadlines.
The permanent solution to the city’s water shortage problem is the National Matabeleland Zambezi Water project, which has been on the drawing board for 100 years.
Minister Nkomo last month assured the region that the project would be completed in three years after Government secured funding from China.
Online Reporter