BCC starts feasibility study for Matopos, Umganin aquifers

Vusumuzi Dube, Online News Editor

A FEASIBILITY study of possible aquifers in the Matopos and Umganin area has begun in earnest with the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) flighting a tender for the provision of hydro-geologist survey services.

Hydro-geological surveying is a process that is done to identify and assess groundwater sources, it is basically meant to determine the levels of underground water.

The local authority identified possible aquifers in the two areas as part of its envisaged solutions to the perennial water challenges faced by the city.

In August, it was announced that feasibility studies were being considered to determine the viability of the suburban water aquifer option among other short-to-medium-term options.

Amid the dwindling water levels at major supply dams due to poor inflows last season, the local authority is already drawing over 10 megalitres of its water from boreholes in the Nyamandlovu and Epping Forest Aquifer to bridge the gap.

In the latest developments, BCC, last Sunday flighted an invitation to tender (domestic competitive bidding), for various services, including the hydro-geologist survey.

“The City of Bulawayo invites suitably qualified firms and individuals for the provision of Hydro-geologist Survey Services for Umganin and Matopos Aquifer. A non-compulsory tender briefing shall be held on 14 November 2024 at the Municipal offices, the closing date of the tender is 3 December 2024,” reads part of the tender notice.

The city is believed to have huge underground water reserves and the council is conducting investigations to ascertain the sustainability of tapping into these resources.

Recently, the city’s mayor, Councillor David Coltart revealed that they were considering 2 000-metre drilling rigs to exploit aquifers under the city.

Meanwhile, the city’s water situation continues to deteriorate with indications that another supply dam- Lower Ncema will be decommissioned at the end of this month.

According to the latest council report, after the projected decommissioning of Lower Ncema, the amount of water available for abstraction would be from Insiza (51 megalitres/day), Inyankuni (17 ml/day), Mtshabezi (17 ml/day) and Nyamandlovu (8 ml/day), totalling 93 ML/day.

This figure is however not absolute as it is affected by power supply interruptions and breakdowns.

“In view of the projected water supply situation in the previous month, a tighter water shedding schedule had been presented for consideration to review the current 120-hour shedding to 132-hour shedding, in order to manage dwindling water supplies.

“This was aimed at capping the average daily consumption at or below 100ml/day. The average daily consumption in the past eight months had been 106.3ml/day against an available System Input Volume of 106.2ml/day,” reads the report.

The local authority revealed that the combined storage capacity of the dams supplying Bulawayo was 28.58 percent, representing a total volume of 118 million cubic metres, of which only 101 million cubic metres was currently usable.
Compared to a similar period in 2023 this signifies a 20.18 percent decrease in usable volume of water.

“Insiza, the biggest dam in the city was presently holding 40.85 percent of water and was supplying the bulk of the city’s present raw water supply (51ml/day).

In a bid to increase raw water delivery capacity, a project was ongoing for the balancing of pressure between two points along the pipeline to eliminate the challenges of pressure loss and inefficiencies, the objective was to enhance the raw water delivery capacity by up to an additional 10ml/day.

“Optimisation of abstraction from Inyankuni Dam was envisaged to be realised after the completion of the pump station rehabilitation project. This project also sought to improve system reliability by eliminating pump frequent breakdowns,” reads the report.

The local authority further noted that once Lower Ncema depletes, water supply to the city will be reduced by 35ml/day and areas to be impacted mostly were the Northern areas of the City fed from Tuli reservoir.