Bulawayo dams not silted — BCC

27 Sep, 2020 - 00:09 0 Views
Bulawayo dams not silted — BCC Upper Ncema

The Sunday News

Vusumuzi Dube, Senior Municipal Reporter
THE Bulawayo City Council (BCC) has dismissed as misconstrued allegations that most of its dams are silted, claiming that scooping the dams could reduce their operational capacity.

Residents have over the past two months accused the local authority of failing to take advantage of low water levels in their decommissioned dams to scoop them alleging that most were not carrying water to their maximum capacity due to siltation.

The local authority has since decommissioned three dams Umzingwane, Upper Ncema and Lower Ncema. In a statement, the local authority revealed that the issue of the city’s dam’s being silted was one of the most prominently asked questions during the just ended virtual 2021 budget consultative meetings. Council, however, dismissed the sentiments revealing that most of the dams had minimal to no siltation and that scooping them will actually increase the dead water, thereby serving no purpose at all.

“Water in the dam is drawn through abstraction points depending on the level of the dam water. Abstraction through the inlet gates depends on the water level in the dam. The operational capacity of the dam is between the full supply level, that is the level when the dam is spilling and the lowest abstraction level. The water below the lowest level is dead water. The fact that the lowest level is still exposed shows that there is minimum siltation in the dams. Scooping the dams will just increase the dead water and reduce operational capacity of each dam,” noted the local authority.

According to the statement, BCC gave an example of the Ncema river, which feeds into Upper and Lower Ncema, where they revealed that the river is still at the same levels as when it was dammed, noting that if there was any siltation the original river will be covered with sand and mud.

Meanwhile, TCI International property developer came to the rescue of Bulawayo’s ward 16, 17 and 26 residents after thieves stole a pump at one of their boreholes, leaving more than 2 000 households dependent on it together with a community garden without any water source.

The company’s managing director, Mr Cris Mtungwazi said they had noted the importance of the borehole in servicing the community hence their timeous donation of a pump, servicing of the borehole and bolstering of the facility’s security.

“As a developer you would know the importance of water to any community hence when these people approached us with their crisis, we felt we had a role to play in easing their water woes. This is part of us reacting to Government’s call for all players to come on board in resolving the water crisis in the city hence we understand the pressure BCC is in hence as the private sector we also have to come in and play our part,” said Mr Mtungwazi.

Residents’ chairperson, Mr Elliot Moyo paid gratitude to the company’s gesture noting that the theft of the initial pump had left a majority of the residents stranded.

“This borehole is servicing residents from ward 16, 17 and 26, further people from Emthunzini suburb also come here, you can thus imagine the effect it had when the pump was stolen,” said Mr Moyo.

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