Vusumuzi Dube
Sunday News Correspondent
BULAWAYO residents have resolved to petition the Minister of Water Resources, Management and Development and the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) after the city recently introduced a tight water shedding regime, it has been learnt.
BCC last Friday began massive water shedding that will see water supplies being cut off for at least 48 hours a week as the city tries to conserve the little water available in the city.
Bulawayo United Residents Association (BURA) chairperson, Mr Winos Dube, said they had since resolved to petition Government and the local authority to have a more serious approach to the water situation in the city.
“We are sick and tired of this song that is being sung round about the same time every year, it is now common knowledge to every Jack and Jill that we have a crisis in the city that needs these people to take a serious attitude if it is to be resolved.
“It appears our leaders are not jerked up or the least serious in solving this problem, if you take an example of the completion of the Mtshabezi-Umzingwane pipeline link project we are always being told stories on when it will be completed, if there was any seriousness that project would have long been completed,” said Mr Dube.
He said while as residents they had the mandate of conserving the available water supplies as much as possible the responsible authorities should accept their required role of trying to effectively solving the problem at hand.
“When our leaders were voted into office they were accepting that they are now responsible for all the city’s problems right now we will convene as residents and petition both council and Government to take a serious attitude on the problems being faced in the city because they really have to see our concern and how serious we are over this water issue.
“Minister Samuel Sipepa Nkomo must realise that while we respect him we are tired of all the excuses he is constantly giving us, it’s either Mtshabezi is connected or the city is going to have a crisis worse than we have now,” said the BURA chairperson.
Mr Dube further took a swipe at the city’s councillors saying they were letting down the electorate by focusing on self enrichment rather than ensuring they boost service delivery.
“Immediately after United States dollars were introduced in the country instead of focusing on boosting service delivery they  decided to buy the mayor a luxury car as if that wasn’t enough we were told that their top officials were set to get loans to purchase top of the range vehicles, honestly with such a council we are bound to have more problems like we have now.
“If they had directed all this money say to the Nyamandlovu acquifer I don’t think we will be having this crisis at hand, our council doesn’t know anything about prioritising at all,” said Mr Dube.
The local authority introduced the shedding exercise after reportedly receiving below average rainfall during the rainy season.
The city has reportedly been forced to adopt water shedding as a last resort following the decommissioning of Upper Ncema Dam, which left four supply dams, Insiza, Inyankuni, Lower Ncema and Umzingwane supplying the city. Umzingwane is set to be decommissioned soon.
Bulawayo is said to be operating with a deficit of four dams as an additional supply dam is supposed to be constructed after every 10 years. The last supply dam to be constructed and used by the city was Insiza in 1976.