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Leonard Ncube, Sunday News Reporter
THE Victoria Falls City Council is considering introducing a tight water shedding schedule as the local authority is struggling to supply enough water to its residents because of technical challenges at the pump station.
Residents spent the whole of last week with no running water with those in high-lying suburbs most affected.
In a statement, the Town Clerk, Mr Ronnie Dube, said the city pumps less water, about 16.8 megalitres per day against a daily demand of about 900 megalitres.
“The council is facing technical challenges at the pump station where it is operating with a small pump while work is underway to fix a bigger pump that will temporarily solve the challenge. The panacea to Victoria Falls’ perennial water problems is the construction of reservoirs which will enable the city to store large volumes of water for distribution to all residents.”
Mr Dube said the city pumps water directly to users from treatment tanks and once there was a fault or if electricity goes it affects pumping and water stops coming out. He said the city had started the process of constructing two reservoirs in Mkhosana after investing US$4 million and the project was expected to be completed next year.
“The current water supply from the river abstraction is an average of 700m3/hr or 16.8ML/day to ensure constant water supply to the whole city of Victoria Falls. The city needs an average of 900m3/hr or 21.6ML/day.
However, the council is operating with a small pump. The concrete slab on which the second pump was sitting on was collapsing causing the pump to be misaligned which in turn resulted in the second bigger pump vibrating excessively. The reinforced concrete slab had to be reconstructed and given sufficient period to allow for curing of the slab,” added Mr Dube.
He said having water supply which was less than the water demand had resulted in challenges in maintaining stable water levels in the distribution reservoirs. The city is working on strategies to ensure reliable supply of water, while work on the second pump is to be completed this Friday so that the supply can meet the city’s water demand.
Mr Dube said repair of leaks at the water treatment plant was expected to be completed on Saturday (yesterday) before cleaning and deepening of the channel at the river so that the pumps could draw water as the levels of Zambezi River decrease during the months before the rains.
“Solutions include the implementation of a water-shedding programme to ensure that the residents do not go for more than two days without water. In the long run there is a need to have a third pump on standby at the river abstraction plant,” he said.
The city has intensified the use of bowsers to provide water to residents, especially in Mkhosana, while some residents have been queuing to fetch water from raw water pipes in the industrial areas. Some of the newly elected councillors have taken the initiative to help supply residents with water using bowsers and vehicles.
Councillor elect for Ward 2 Mr Tafadzva Mutowa, has been using his vehicle to supply residents in his ward with water. Concerns have however, been raised about excessive use of water by residents who use hosepipes to water gardens despite the shortage of water especially during summer.
Proposals have been made for the city to have a dedicated raw waterpipe to be used for gardens. Ward 1 Councillor elect Ephias Mambume said the perennial water woes were as a result of poor planning and lack of political will to get the problem sorted.
“I also concur that there is a lack of sincerity in reporting water challenges in our city. We need an all-stakeholders approach to resolve this issue. We need an arrangement where residents and businesses pull resources together to finance a project that will solve the water challenge permanently. We can create a loan list of those who put their funds into the project and the loans will be paid back through crediting their accounts and drawing down until the full loan is paid back.”
He said the first port of call should be getting the raw water system up and running again as over 75 percent of treated water demand was currently being used for gardens.
“So, getting the raw water system fixed will reduce the demand for treated water and this will benefit the whole town as it will ease the pressure on the demand for treated water,” said Mambume. -@ncubeleon
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