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Peter Matika – [email protected]
BULAWAYO continues to grapple with acute water supply challenges that has seen most suburbs going for weeks and in some areas more than a month without running water, which the local authority attributes to disruptive power outages.
City mayor, Councillor David Coltart, said the situation was concerning across the city amid fears of potential outbreak of diseases.
The water situation is critical for Bulawayo this year due to weaker dam inflows in the last season as the country suffered a crippling drought, which has forced council to tighten its water shedding regime.
In an interview, Cllr Coltart said power cuts were compounding the situation.
“This has created major problems for the city. The city already has a tight water rationing regime that lasts for 133 hours a week and now we cannot supply water due to power cuts that have left our reservoirs with critical low water levels,” he said.
Cllr Coltart said water shortages have also affected operations within the city as most businesses cannot operate without water.
“Last Friday we inspected Mtshabezi Dam pump station, Umzingwane pump station and Insiza Dam with Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Minister, Dr Anxious Masuka.
“Although Mtshabezi Dam is over 50 percent full, only 17 megalitress can be pumped daily to Umzingwane Dam pump station. This must be appreciated in the context of Bulawayo’s total daily need of 165 megalitres,” he said. “This capacity of 17 megalitres a day is also based on an assumption of continuous 24 hour pumping seven days a week.
“When we inspected the pumps they were not running due to a power cut and when I asked the Zinwa representatives how much power they are getting they advised that on average they are without power for six hours a day,” said Clr Coltart.
He said what this means is that they are only able to run at 75 percent at best resulting in less that 17 megalitres being pumped a day.
Clr Coltart said due to the fact that much of the pipeline between Umtshabezi and Ncema dams is gravity-fed, the 13 megalitres being pumped daily, drops to as little as nine megalitres by the time it reaches Ncema.
Cllr Coltart said Mtshabezi Dam has enough water but very little can be pumped daily into the city’s water reticulation system.
“Two things are critical to improve that supply: the completion of the upgrade pumps at Umzingwane pump station and the diversion of a portion of the pipeline from Mtshabezi to Umzingwane pump station, which will mean that water on the Umzingwane to Ncema portion of the pipeline will be pumped rather than gravity fed,” he said.
Clr Coltart said council has not been able to work on the diversion project because of procurement process delays.
“I am grateful that Dr Masuka undertook to deal with issues of disbursement of the needed funds from Treasury and to waive the PRAZ procedures because of the urgency of the matter,” said Cllr Coltart.
He said the Government has also undertaken to lobby for a solar system to be installed at Mtshabezi pump station so that the pumping is not affected by ZESA powercuts.
“The other way to increase the city’s daily water supplies from Mtshabezi Dam is to construct a duplicate pipeline but that is expensive and will take long, said” Cllr Coltart.
He said during the inspection tour he was informed that the Nyamandlovu Aquifer has a design capacity of 20 megalitres per day but has been running way below that due to theft of pumps and switch gear,
“The situation has however improved and we are now getting about 15 mega litres of water per day. Umzingwane and Upper Ncema dams have been decommissioned and Lower Ncema will follow shortly. That leaves us with Inyankuni Dam, Mtshabezi Dam and Insiza Dam,” said Cllr Coltart.
Bulawayo Town Clerk Mr Christopher Dube outlined how power outages and maintenance issues between October 12 and October 19 crippled the city’s ability to supply water.
“These interruptions were a result of load shedding that further weakened the city’s already limited water supply system,” said Mr Dube.