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The pipe has an actual daily output of 46 000 cubic metres of water, against the city’s daily needs of about 140 000 cubic metres.
During a tour of the refurbished waterworks at Ncema last month, the city’s director of engineering services, Engineer Simela Dube, said the city was banking on the augmentation of the pipeline, significant rainfall before June or the completion of the Umzingwane-Mtshabezi pipeline by the middle of the year.

He said if the options do not come through, the city might be forced to adopt water-shedding to spread out supplies until the next rainy season.
He said the city’s five supply dams, Insiza, Umzingwane, Inyankuni, Lower and Upper Ncema, had received a combined inflow of two percent this rainy season.
According to the latest council report, three options were considered to increase the pumping capacity from Insiza.

“The first option was to repair all valves and fittings along the existing pipeline but this was ruled out because it cannot increase capacity to required levels.
“The second, which was adopted, was that a 600-millimetre pipeline be constructed alongside the existing 900mm pipe to increase capacity to the required 71 000 cubic metres a day. The third was to construct a pipeline that would eventually replace the old one,” reads the report.

The report shows that optimisation of water usage through a Water Conservation and Demand Management (WCDM) strategy could also unlock “additional” water to the city.

“The municipality is, through the water and sanitation master plan, reviewing its WCDM through the water and sanitation master plan,” the report reads.
Councillors resolved that an urgent application should be made to central Government to allow the city to increase its abstraction from Insiza Dam.
Bulawayo is now under permanent water rationing as the city battles to preserve its ever-dwindling water supplies.

There have also been calls for the speedy completion of the Gwayi/Shangani Dam, which is a major component of the National Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project.
Water Resources Development and Management Minister, Samuel Sipepa Nkomo, last week said the Government had signed a $900 million deal with China that would see the Gwayi/Shangani Dam Project being completed in three years.