Chronicle Editor
Bulawayo Mayor, Councillor Solomon Mguni, delivered his New Year message to residents on Wednesday.
In a slightly belated delivery, a full eight days into the new year, Clr Mguni devoted some time to discuss the water situation in the city. That discussion was inevitable given the perennial water shortage in the city and its worsening in July last year resulting in the local authority reintroducing water shedding.
In the beginning, residents went without running water for 48 hours. Over the past seven months and following the decommissioning of Upper Ncema and Umzingwane dams, the period has been extended to 96 hours.
By 30 January last year, the city’s dam capacity was at 60.53 percent. As at Wednesday this week, the dam capacity had dropped to 35,4 percent, slightly down from 36 percent when the second dam, Umzingwane, was disconnected early last month.
It is already difficult for residents living with dry taps for four days a week but there is a possibility that this might be their way of life up to the next rainy season if no substantial rains fall in the interim. Some among us were fearful that the city might run dry soon as the weather remains hot and dry. However, Clr Mguni’s estimation that the capacity in place by Wednesday will be enough until April 2021 with the 96-hour shedding period being maintained can, in the desperate circumstances Bulawayo is in, be said to be reassuring.
“Due to the El Nino and La Nina effects and climate change, water supply challenges are currently being faced by the residents of Bulawayo,” he said.
“We remain hopeful for bountiful rains that will ensure that we provide adequate water supply to the residents. Our overall dam levels as of today are at 35,4 percent. The 96-hour water shedding schedule will help extend water supplies by up to 15 months. In 2019 the city faced numerous challenges with pump breakdowns due to old age and power surges thereby affecting water supply.
“In our bid to provide quality services, we will be installing new electromechanical equipment at Ncema and Fernhill pump stations which will see the installation of new pumps for the raw water supply line at both stations. The new pumps will ensure reliability in the water supply system, improve efficiency and will utilise the Scada technology that allows for remote management of the systems. We will also attend to the protection of the equipment through installation of new circuit breakers that will safeguard the equipment against power surges.”
Ncema and Fernhill pump stations, replacement of piping in some suburbs under the Bulawayo Water and Sewerage Services Improvement Project and completion of the Nyamandlovu Aquifer project will ameliorate the water crisis, Town Clerk, Mr Christopher Dube said on Wednesday.
“So far we have decommissioned Upper Ncema and Umzingwane,” he said.
“In the near future we might also decommission Lower Ncema. We are therefore carrying out the water augmentation strategy that seeks to improve the Nyamandlovu aquifer which is most likely going to give us 10 megalitres a day. It is giving us about four megalitres a day and we intend to increase to 15 megalitres. The Nyamandlovu Epping Forest project has the potential to give us 20 megalitres a day.”
The aquifer project and others are very important and every Bulawayo resident knows that they have been at various stages of execution for quite a long time. Residents and ratepayers who are struggling without water for four days weekly now want them to be concluded so that the water supply situation improves. Updates and assurances, while welcome, will not deliver water to homes.
The potential of the Nyamandlovu underground reservoir in alleviating Bulawayo’s water shortage has been talked about for decades but has still not been fully harnessed. We therefore implore council to really pull up its socks in regard to the aquifer for drawing a mere four megalitres daily from a reservoir that can deliver five times more water to a city that is desperate for the precious liquid is not good enough. We are sure residents are not prepared to hear any more interim reports on it; they just want to hear that all the infrastructure to pump water from Nyamandlovu is now in place.
We must also state that even if torrents fall to fill up Bulawayo’s dams in the next month or so, obviating water rationing and shedding, ongoing activity at Ncema and Fernhill pump stations, Nyamandlovu Aquifer and the replacement of inefficient water piping in some suburbs under the Bulawayo Water and Sewerage Services Improvement Project must not be discontinued.
This must be so because Bulawayo, until the Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project comes to fruition, can never be comfortable about its water supply because of its geographical location in a generally dry region.
Online Reporter