Gwanda seeks exemption for power cuts at water pumping station

Sukulwenkosi Dube-MatutuGwanda Correspondent 

GWANDA Municipality has written to the Ministry of Energy and Power Development so that its water pumping station is exempted from power cuts being experienced in the country as council is failing to supply residents with water.

Gwanda Town residents have been experiencing severe water shortages with some areas going for over a week without water.

The town has been experiencing power disruptions of up to 17 hours daily.

In an interview Gwanda Mayor, Councillor Jastone Mazhale said power cuts were making it difficult for the municipality to pump water.

“The town has been experiencing water challenges which are mainly caused by power outages that have been persistent for the past few months. As a result the town is experiencing erratic water supply because our pumps are solely driven by Zesa power and as a result if there is no electricity it means our pumps are not pumping into our tanks,” he said.

“As the municipality there are measures we have taken to mitigate this problem. We have engaged the Ministry of Energy and Power Development through the Minister of State for Matabeleland South Province so that they exempt the power line which feeds to our water pumps. We have also engaged our parent ministry so that Minister July Moyo engages his counterpart with the view that they exempt that line so that we have constant water supply. We are awaiting response from Honourable Chasi on our application and if the application is successful then the water situation will normalise.” 

Clr Mazhale said they had also lobbied the Ministry of Energy and Power Development through the Urban Councils’ Association of Zimbabwe.

He said 36 hours of consistent pumping was required in order to fill the tanks to ensure undisrupted water supply. He said however the power outages were being experienced when the tanks were just 30 percent full.

“At the moment we can’t implement other measures to assist residents with water supply as we have a limited number of bowsers. At the moment we are only catering for council schools, clinics and public toilets particularly those in Ward 4,” he said.

Clr Mazhale said the five mega litre reservoir project which was ongoing was almost complete but progress was being stalled by power outages.

He said once the water situation normalised they would work on completing the project.

– @DubeMatutu

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