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THE Bulawayo City Council last month reduced the water shedding schedule from 72 hours a week to 48hrs in response to the continuous pumping of water from Mtshabezi Dam. The move was welcomed by residents who have been subjected stringent water rationing for more than a year as the local authority battles to conserve the city’s dwindling water supplies.
The continuous pumping of water from Mtshabezi has, however, not significantly boosted the city’s water supplies because Inyankuni and Upper Ncema, two of the city’s supply dams, have since been decommissioned. The decision by council to relax water shedding was a difficult one given the fact that not much has changed in terms of the city’s daily water supplies.
It is therefore disturbing to learn that after reducing water shedding from 72 hours a week to 48 hours, daily water consumption shot up sharply. It seems residents are not aware that the continuous pumping of water from Mtshabezi Dam has not changed the city’s daily water supplies. The council has already warned that it might be forced to revert to the 72 hours water shedding per week if the residents’ water consumption remains high.
Water levels in the city’s seven reservoirs are reported to be too low and there are fears that some suburbs could run dry unless daily water consumption is drastically reduced. Residents who are supposed to consume less than 112 000 cubic metres a day are reported to be consuming as high as 134 000 cubic metres a day thereby causing a drastic drop in water levels in the city’s reservoirs. When water levels in the city’s reservoirs drop below the required levels, the water pressure is reduced resulting in high areas failing to get water.
The council in a bid to educate residents on the importance of reducing water consumption has launched a door to door campaign. We want to appeal to residents to cut on water consumption to avoid increased water shedding hours. Residents should appreciate that the little water left in the city’s supply dams should take us to the next rainy season hence the need to conserve water. It is better to have little water daily than to run completely dry.
The sharp increase in the daily consumption might force some suburbs to go without water which will be a recipe for disaster. Residents had since the introduction of the water shedding regime more than a year ago managed to reduce daily water consumption and we want to believe that they wrongly interpreted the relaxation of the water shedding to mean that the city now has adequate water supplies which unfortunately is not the case.
We want to urge the councillors, residents’ associations executives and other community leaders to take a leading role in educating residents on the importance of conserving water. Water is life and unlike electricity, has no substitute.
Bulawayo’s supply dams have not received significant inflows for the past two seasons because of the poor rains hence the city has decommissioned two of the supply dams.
We want to once again urge residents to stop abusing water so that the little water left can take us to the next rainy season.
Online Reporter