Government to assist Bulawayo City Council address water situation

GOVERNMENT has pledged to assist Bulawayo City Council (BCC) secure US$14 million which the local authority wants to address the city’s prevailing water crisis.

BCC wants the funds to rehabilitate its obsolete water treatment infrastructure.

In an interview soon after his engagement meeting with Bulawayo Mayor Councillor David Coltart and town clerk Mr Christopher Dube at the council chambers on Friday last week, Local Government and Public Works Minister Winston Chitando said there will be further engagements to ensure funding.

He said the Government will assist the City of Bulawayo to get foreign currency.

“The second issue we discussed is for the Government to facilitate investment in the short-term solutions of addressing the water situation in Bulawayo, and about US$14 million is required. The mayor and the town clerk have had meetings with several partners to come on board with the funding,” he said.

Minister Chitando said during his engagement with the top BCC officials, they also discussed the Glass Block Dam project.

According to a technical report from the council, the dam will increase the inflows of water to Bulawayo by 70 percent. This will require a 32km pipeline to pump water from the dam to Ncema whose pumping system also needs to be rehabilitated.

“Council plans are that by 2027, that project should be done and they are potential private players who are interested in funding that project. There are technical and finance committees who are looking at the issues and those committees are supposed to report back by the end of April,” said Minister Chitando.

He said the security issue at the Nyamandlovu Aquifer boreholes will also be addressed.

The Government, through the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa), has already repaired 35 out of the 60 boreholes at the Nyamandlovu Aquifer while 83 sites within the city have been identified as part of immediate complementary emergency measures to alleviate the city’s critical water situation.

The repaired boreholes in Nyamandlovu are pumping 12 megalitres of water per day into the city against a minimum target of 16 megalitres.

The 20-member technical committee was appointed by President Mnangagwa in November last year and was given a 100-day job description mandate which saw them repair the 35 boreholes, a task which was slowed down by theft and vandalism of equipment.

While the Government has been hands-on in terms of finding immediate and long-term solutions to the water crisis in the city, it was recently revealed that the council is sitting on $7 billion which Treasury gave to the local municipality to meet some of its water systems repair costs.

The money was deposited into the council bank account in December last year. Based on the January 2, 2024 official exchange rate, the figure was equivalent to US$1 028 million.

Clr Coltart confirmed receipt of the money and that it was still lying idle in council accounts.

He said the reason for the non-use of the money to date was the refusal by suppliers to accept the local currency.

“It is correct that the money has been disbursed and is sitting in the city council bank accounts, and the problem is that it is in local currency. We have gone out to contract private companies for some of the work that needs to be done,” said Clr Coltart.

“As you may appreciate we don’t manufacture these large pumps locally and they have to be imported, it’s the same with the booster pumps.”