admin
Loveness Bepete Chronicle Reporter
THE Bulawayo City Council needs $600,000 for the rehabilitation of more than 70 boreholes at the Nyamandlovu Aquifer to augment the city’s water supply.
The city’s Director of Engineering Services, Engineer Simela Dube said only 13 out of 77 boreholes were functional and the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) had engaged a donor, the German Development Cooperation (GIZ) to rehabilitate them.
“Zinwa engaged a donor, GIZ to rehabilitate the 17 best yielding boreholes in a bid to maximise the water supply to the city of Bulawayo. However, only 13 out of the 77 boreholes are operational. Zinwa is also using its internal funds to rehabilitate some of the boreholes,” Eng Dube said.
He said after the rehabilitation exercise, water available for abstraction was expected to increase by four mega litres, from 12ML to 16ML.
The city engineer said that a local contractor, Bluegold, had started rehabilitation work on 17 boreholes.
Eng Dube said the contractor had completed fishing of pumps, brushing, air lifting, draw-down tests, constant discharge tests and barricading.
He said 22 boreholes had also been video inspected.
Eng Dube said Zinwa had rehabilitated five in-house boreholes and was only left with casting the slabs.
“Bluegold was set to work on the extra 5 boreholes to meet the Zinwa target. So far three high yield boreholes have been commissioned. Outstanding was installation of automated controls on the remaining boreholes in case of electricity load shedding,” he said.
Eng Dube said an estimated $4 million was needed to implement another water project, the Epping Forest project.
The project would see water supply increase by an additional 10 mega litres.
“This is a project that could be implemented within a short space of time to augment the city’s water supply by an additional 10 ML of water per day. It’s estimated to cost $4 million.
“Council had passed a resolution and agreed to partner government through Zinwa and contribute towards the cost of implementing this project. Letters have been written to the Ministry of Local Government, Public Construction and National Housing to facilitate the project. To date no feedback has been received and reminders have been sent,” Eng Dube said.
The latest developments come at a time when the local authority is contemplating re-introducing water shedding due to projections that water levels in supply dams would be critically low by beginning of next year.
Londile Moyo
Online Reporter