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Midlands Bureau Chief
GWERU’ S main supply water source, Gwenoro Dam, is seven percent full, leaving the city with approximately two months’ water supply, City Engineer, Eng Jones Nanthambwe, has said. In an interview on Wednesday, Eng Nanthambwe said the water situation was getting worse by the day as residents failed to respect the city council’s water rationing regime.
He warned residents to brace for a much more difficult controlling regime — that of water shedding —as the city seeks to stretch its limited precious resource to the next rainy season.
Eng Nanthambwe said the water reserves at Gwenoro Dam could lead to the decommissioning of the water source by the end of this month.
“Gwenoro Dam is nine percent full but only seven percent is usable. The other two percent is muddy water that cannot be sucked into the system.
Based on unrestricted water consumption, we won’t go beyond the end of August with the available water,” he said.
“Amapongokwe, the other supply dam, has 50 percent of usable water. It looks like a lot of water but the truth is Amapongokwe cannot sustain the city. The dam was built as a backup to Gwenoro Dam, our main supply dam. At its best Amapongokwe can get to 60 percent full, hence there has to be a lot of water restrictions. Water shedding works because you don’t give people water.”
The city engineer said residents were failing to restrict themselves when it comes to water usage.
The water shedding regime is likely to hit hard residents who, for years, have been enduring erratic water supplies owing to a number of reasons.
At one time the city council failed to pump due to power outages while on most occasions the local authority battled to improve its pumping capacity.
“Water shedding is a painful, uncomfortable and dangerous exercise as it exposes residents to a number of challenges that include diseases. This is why it has to be adopted as a last resort always.
“Water rationing or restricting is better. But how then do we restrict when people do not want to follow instructions. When you look up in the sky, there is no hope that we will receive rains any time soon. We don’t conserve water in anticipation of rains but we conserve in anticipation of continued drought.
“We have to shed because we can’t wait for Gwenoro to run dry,” said Eng Nanthambwe.
The tight water shedding regime is expected to commence at the beginning of next month.
Online Reporter