Water shedding fails, BCC scraps schedule

water faucet

Vusumuzi Dube, Municipal Reporter
THE Bulawayo City Council (BCC) has lifted water shedding after facing a number of operational challenges which saw the local authority saving little or no water at all.

BCC introduced a 72-hour water shedding schedule in November after water in its supply dams drastically fell to a combined 30 percent.

However, in the latest minutes, the local authority — which had given residents a reprieve during the festive season — said it had decided to totally lift water shedding as it continues to observe the situation and come up with more innovative means to conserve water.

According to a report by council’s department of engineering services, it was noted that water shedding was largely ineffective as the city’s water distribution system is old and faced major breakdowns due to burst pipes within the system because of air accumulating in the system during water shedding periods.

The department further revealed that the management of liquid waste during water shedding was seriously compromised.

“There were additionally power failures on the bulk conveyance pipelines delivering water to the city. These caused major pipe breakdowns in the system. There has further been a tendency of people getting water from the exempted areas such as the Central Business District and industrial areas for domestic use with bowsers and large containers and selling to consumers especially in the western areas.

“Use of bowsers to ferry water to western areas provided logistical challenges. Major works involving servicing of new areas like Luveve 5 had to be scaled down and a lot of overtime was paid for staff working on community boreholes that were now the main source of household water,” reads the report.

According to the latest Bulawayo supply dam statistics, the situation has not changed much as dam levels still remain at just above 30 percent full, the same levels they were when the local authority was forced to adopt the 72-hour water shedding regime in November.

The city is operating with four out of six supply dams, with Upper Ncema which is just 9,35 percent full and Umzingwane which is at 15,26 percent full having been decommissioned.

Insiza Mayfair is 47,37 percent full, Mtshabezi stands at 46,56 percent full while Lower Ncema is 19,02 percent full and Inyankuni Dam is 11,84 percent full.

The city faces a water crisis at the end of almost every year and has been under water rationing since 1984. The Mtshabezi-Umzingwane pipeline project is viewed as a short-term solution to the city’s perennial water problems together with the drilling of more boreholes at Epping Forest.

The Government last year also announced that the city will soon be constructing a new dam at Glassblock in Matabeleland South at an estimated cost of $208 million. No work has commenced on the project due to funding constraints.

Experts say the permanent solution to water shortages in Bulawayo and Matabeleland is the National Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project that was first mooted in 1912.

@vusadb

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