We will not accept Khami water- Residents

Vusumuzi Dube, Senior Municipal Reporter

BULAWAYO residents have reiterated that they will not accept the local authority’s bid to purify and supply water from the heavily polluted Khami Dam.

The city is facing a serious water crisis that has forced council to introduce a weekly 144-hour water shedding programme.

Bulawayo City Council (BCC) recently revisited plans to recycle Khami Dam water as one of the sustainable ways of providing running water to the city in light of the shortages.

Addressing members of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Thematic Committee on Peace and Security on Monday, the local authority’s director of engineering services, Engineer Simela Dube said the city had no option left for them but to try and recycle water from the dam.

“It’s the only dam that we have as a city. Normally when you see the Zimbabwe National Water Authority statistics on the capacity of dams in the Bulawayo Metropolitan province it is always sitting at 96 percent, so we have no option than to try and recycle,” said Eng Dube.

However, in an interview with Sunday News on Thursday, Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association secretary, Mr Thembelani Dube said they were prepared to take legal action against the local authority to block the move.

“We are talking of a council that is already failing to give residents clean water resulting in the death of 13 people due to Typhoid, honestly how then can you trust them which such a huge task of purifying water of the heavily contaminated Khami Dam.

“We will not sit back and watch while the local authority wants to kill us, we have put our foot down and say no to Khami dam water, BCC should explore other avenues outside that option,” said Mr Dube.