MDC-T divided over Bulawayo water crisis

by his MDC-T party to declare Bulawayo a water disaster area.

Addressing journalists on Friday, the party’s provincial chairperson for Bulawayo, Mr Gorden Moyo, said MDC-T would pressure Minister Nkomo into making the declaration.

Mr Moyo said his party had already declared Bulawayo a disaster zone and had asked Minister Nkomo to make the position clear to the Government, which was in a position to make the ultimate decision.

However, in an interview yesterday, Minister Nkomo said the issue of declaring the city a disaster area had not been raised in the meeting that he held with Mr Moyo and other party members on Friday.

“It is absolutely untrue. I attended the meeting and the matter was not brought up. I was not approached by anyone, during or after the meeting asking me to declare Bulawayo a water disaster area,” said Minister Nkomo.

He maintained that it was too early to call the city a critical water shortage area.

“If we make such a declaration for Bulawayo, then we would have to declare the whole country a disaster zone. There are parts of the country, especially rural areas, where people walk unbelievable distances to get water,” said Minister Nkomo.

The Minister said he had briefed party members on the water situation and had outlined measures being taken to mitigate the acute water shortages faced by residents.

“At the moment, I am satisfied with the progress that we are making. Making the declaration would broaden our resources base to fight the shortage but I think so far, we have adequate means, with assistance from various donors to avert disaster,” said Minister Nkomo.
Contacted for comment, Mr Moyo back- tracked on earlier utterances and toned them down.

“I addressed a Press briefing in which I said as a party, we were satisfied with measures put in place by Sipepa to mitigate the water shortages, both in the long and short term,” said Mr Moyo.
He said Minister Nkomo had clearly outlined the city’s water status and had convinced party members that there was no urgent need to declare Bulawayo a critical water shortage area.

“There is no story here. I only said the Minister could declare the city a disaster zone if he felt the announcement would help to expedite the sound measures that he has already put in place to save the city,” he said.

The “modified” statements contradicted his utterances on Friday.
He was quoted in the Press saying; “As a party, we have taken an interest in 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 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.

The MDC-T has in the past been criticised for failing to stick to one position long enough for the electorate to identify with its policies.

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 at Nyamandlovu Aquifer from 5 000 to about 30 000 cubic metres a day.

He has also met Vice President Joice Mujuru and presented the issue of the Bulawayo water situation in Cabinet on Tuesday although it was not fully discussed.

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 following the securing of funding from China.