Water woes mount

the main water storage facility for the city.

The city council’s senior public relations officer, Mrs Nesisa Mpofu, said in an interview yesterday that the eastern suburbs were already without water as of yesterday afternoon.

She said initially, a Zesa fault affecting Ncema Water Works, which occurred at 4pm on Tuesday, had prevented pumping of water to Criterion and Tuli Hill.

“However, Zesa restored power at Ncema Water Works at 3pm today and pumping started at 3.45pm for raw water. Council artisans are now attending to a stuck valve at Fernhill on the clear water pipe line which is linked to Tuli Hill Reservoir hence pumping has not yet resumed for clear water,” said Mrs Mpofu.

Tuli Hill Reservoir supplies all the eastern suburbs.

Mrs Mpofu said the rest of the city would continue having water until the little that is left in the Criterion Reservoir runs out.

“Consumers fed from Criterion Clear Water Reservoir will continue to have water as we are treating raw water stored in the raw water reservoir which was at a level of 1,31 metres this morning. We will stop treating water once the level drops closer to the critical level of one metre,” said Mrs Mpofu.

She appealed to residents to join hands with council in the face of the emergency which will render the water shedding schedule meaningless as there will simply be no water to pump to residents.

“Let us work together to ensure the little water we have keeps us going until we are able to replenish the reservoir. This emergency affects every resident and it is up to everyone of us to behave responsibly and save every drop,” said Mrs Mpofu.

She said if the critical level is reached, the city would be without water for at least five days as it would take that long for the system to be shut down to allow water to accumulate to levels that could be treated and distributed.

Mrs Mpofu said the five bowsers that council is using to deliver water to areas affected by faults that prevent them from getting water outside the shedding schedule, would not be enough to cover the entire city.

Bulawayo is facing a severe water crisis that has resulted in the city adopting a shedding schedule of 72 hours for all suburbs every week.

At a water crisis meeting last week, council’s deputy director of engineering services, Engineer Ian Mthunzi, said the schedule could soon be increased to 96 hours as residents were failing to keep within the rationing limits.

The city is supposed to use about 95 000 cubic metres of water daily but usage is reportedly averaging 110 000 cubic metres.

The city has since secured emergency funding to increase the volume of water it can pump from Nyamandlovu Aquifer from about 5 000 cubic metres to 30 000 cubic metres everyday.

It has also embarked on a massive rehabilitation exercise of boreholes in the city.

Last week, Eng Mthunzi said the Mtshabezi pipeline might be completed in a few weeks which would increase the water supply to the city.However, he said, the water would only enable the city to reduce shedding duration to 48 hours per week.