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Nqobile Tshili, Chronicle Reporter
THE Government has committed to availing US$13 million for Bulawayo’s short-term water projects to avert a disaster in the city.

Bulawayo is facing one of the worst water crises in years, resulting in the local authority imposing a weekly six-day water shedding programme.

In some suburbs, residents have not received running water for more than two months, relying on water delivered using bowsers.

Desperate residents also fetch water from unprotected sources.

Bulawayo City Council (BCC) has identified recycling of Khami water, increasing pumping capacity at Nyamandlovu-Sawmills Aquifer to up to 20ML/day and duplicating the Insiza pipeline to provide 16ML/day to augment depleting supplies.

Council is pumping 94ML/day against a daily demand of 150ML, as the city’s supply dams are 28 percent full.

BCC decommissioned Lower Ncema, Upper Ncema and Umzingwane dams leaving the city with Insiza, Inyakuni and Mtshabezi dams.

Government in April released $10,6 million for rehabilitation of Nyamandlovu aquifer boreholes to improve water supply.

The funds were released to the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) which completed the emergency water works at the end of last month increasing daily water pumping from the aquifer to 10ML/day.

Local Government and Public Works Minister July Moyo, in the same month, stated that Government was committed to addressing the city’s water problems and would be availing more funds to ease the desperate water situation.

Bulawayo Town Clerk Mr Christopher Dube told a media briefing that there was a lot of closed-door discussions to address the challenge.

Mr Dube said Government has committed to release US$13 million for the emergency water works. “We are working together with Government. As a city, we assure what Government has promised, US$13 million has been promised for the projects that are underway and it will be provided. I know one thing for certain in the background there is something for the implementation of the projects that Government has promised to give Bulawayo in the short term,” said Mr Dube.

Briefing the media during the same briefing, the council’s director of Engineering Services Engineer Simela Dube, said council is tightening the noose on industry and commerce for wasting water.

He said while industry has previously been exempted from water shedding, the local authority was considering penalising the sector.

“We have been contemplating industry because we feel while given the exemption, we do feel there could be some abuse of that exemption. Which is why you see people knocking off from work and every person in those company owned cars are driving with a little bowser in the back,” he said.

“They are actually taking water from commerce to home. We are tracking industry, we might further cut their rations because they are on continuous supply despite the current challenges. We might increase penalties in those areas.” -@nqotshili