Source: The Chronicle – Breaking news
Bulawayo City Council (BCC)Sikhumbuzo Moyo, smoyo@chronicle.co.zw
BULAWAYO City’s water woes could have been significantly reduced had a plan mooted eight years ago by the city’s water engineering experts for a dual piping system from Insiza Dam to Lower Ncema treatment plant been implemented.
Bulawayo City Council (BCC) needs US$360 000 for the Inyankuni booster pump station project meant to increase the pipeline’s carrying capacity of 17 megalitres per day to about 25 megalitres.
This emerged during a media tour of the city’s water supply dams on Friday last week.
At the moment, Lower Ncema gets fed from Upper Ncema which is equally low on water levels and it is sitting at 22,35 percent with council engineers saying the dam will be decommissioned in June next year if there are no significant inflows.
For laying a second water pipe from Insiza Dam, BCC would need US$18 million, according to the chairperson of the City’s Future Water Supplies and Water Action Committee, Councillor Edwin Ndlovu. “We are seized with easing water challenges where we are looking at short-term, mid-term and indeed long-term solutions. The dual pipe system from Insiza Dam is one such plan in the pipeline which is actually a mid-term one and US$18 million is needed for this project,” he said.
Briefing the media and councillors at Inyankuni Dam, acting principal engineer — water supplies, Engineer Dhumani Gwetu said the city was limited by conveyance challenges as the pipeline from Inyankuni could only carry 17 megalitres per day.
“This dam’s carrying capacity is 80 million cubic metres and this was last achieved in 1960. At the moment it is at 32 percent and using current statistics, if we do not get any rains and inflows, the water which is here will last up to February 2026,” he said.
“I want our councillors as policymakers to understand this so that they make informed decisions, even if this dam is to be full to capacity, it won’t necessarily result in easing of water shedding because of the limited capacity of the pipeline’s carrying capacity.”
He said the mid-term plan was the dual pipeline from Insiza Dam to Lower Ncema Dam.
“Insiza has many advantages because the dam never runs dry because of reliable rain that side and it also goes straight to the water treatment plant instead of it first being pumped to Lower Ncema Dam,” said Eng Gwetu.
Finance committee chairperson, Councillor Mpumelelo Moyo said while Government has come up with a long-term water solution project, there is a need for the local authority to work on a short-term solution.
“The Government is doing a fantastic job on the Lake Gwayi-Shangani project but this is a long-term project and as the City of Bulawayo we need a short and mid-term solution to ease our water problems,’ said Clr Moyo.
“As the new crop of councillors, we are not sitting on our laurels and as the finance committee chairperson, I will push to get money for water projects,” he said.
President Mnangagwa has already set up a 20-member Bulawayo Water Technical Committee whose task is to oversee the rapid improvement of water and sanitation services in the city over a 100-day period.
The committee is chaired by the former chair and dean in the faculty of engineering at the National University of Science and Technology (Nust), Dr Annatoria Chinyama.
Members are drawn from the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, water engineers from Zinwa, Bulawayo City Council, public health practitioners, the Environment Management Agency (EMA) and members of the academia.
Bulawayo residents continue to endure prolonged water cuts, sometimes more than a week in some suburbs at a time when some parts of the country are experiencing an outbreak of cholera and diarrhoea.
The situation is worsened by the vandalism of transformers and boreholes at Epping Forest and Nyamandlovu, which reduced the pumping capacity from 20 ML to 4 ML a day. This has affected 60 000 residents who rely on water from the aquifer.
The vandalism of electricity and water infrastructure has been described as a national security threat, and last year the Government set up an inter-ministerial committee to find a lasting solution to the problem.
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