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BULAWAYO residents should brace for a grueling water crisis after council agreed to decommission two of its main water sources as a result of their low water levels.
According to the latest council minutes, the city fathers decommissioned uMzingwane dam on Sunday while Upper Ncema is likely to face the same on August 14, 2022.
Acting director of engineering services Sikhumbuzo Ncube said there is now need to implement water shedding as council dams no longer had the capacity to provide water on a full –time basis.
“Criterion reservoir water levels were going down. Nyamandlovu had constantly been affected by electricity power cuts and seven transformers had been stolen,” reads part of the council minutes.
Ncube told the councilors that contractors at the Gwayi/Shangani project were working night shifts with the expectation that Bulawayo will receive water by December 2022.
The engineer also revealed that the water treatment plant installed by the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) at Cowdray Park is giving council engineers problems.
“The plant is very expensive for council in terms of water pumping costs. It was wiser to channel the water straight to criterion water works as it had capacity as well as it had room for expansion. The water works in Cowdray Park was in the water master plan but it included a pipe to criterion which would enable distribution by gravity,” further reads the report.
Ward 17 councillor Sikhululekile Moyo said council should engage government in the involvement of council engineers in the planning and implementation of the project as it would subsequently be handed over to the local authority.
Bulawayo has for decades experienced water shortages with government’s Matabeleland Zambezi water project, for years touted as a solution, taking longer than had been promised. NewZimbabwe
