The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube, Online News Editor
BULAWAYO residents could spend the Christmas Day with dry taps as the local authority is not committing itself to suspending the punitive water shedding regime as the norm during the festive season.
The council is arguing that it will be premature to do that in the wake of power outages that are affecting pumping.
The Bulawayo City Council effected a 72-hour water shedding schedule in the city, which it occasionally suspends “as and when water is available” depending on the reservoir levels.
Traditionally, the local authority suspends any water shedding schedule during the festive season to give residents a reprieve.
In an interview with Sunday News, the Mayor, Councillor Solomon Mguni, said erratic power supplies by the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) made it difficult for them to commit to suspending the water shedding schedule.
He said in recent weeks the local authority was losing an average of 16 hours of pumping time per day due to power cuts.
Councillor Solomon Mguni
“Traditionally, water shedding is suspended during the festive season. The challenge we have been having with regard to erratic power supply by ZETDC at the waterworks makes it difficult for the city to promise constant delivery of water to the residents over this festive season.
“Our engineers will monitor the situation and adjust accordingly should there be any improvements on the power grid. Of late we have been losing an average of 16 hours of pumping time per day due to power cuts,” said Clr Mguni.
He noted that they continued experiencing challenges at the Nyamandlovu Epping Forest Aquifer where he noted that transformer and cable theft was a recurring issue.
“Even our dedicated power lines to the dams and pump stations have not been spared the power cuts. It has been very difficult for the engineers to stabilise the reservoirs.
Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC)
“We have lost the supply line from Nyamandlovu due to transformer and cable theft and the five mega litres we have been receiving from a possible 12 megalitres a day capacity has not been coming for over a week now,” he said.
Recently, the Government setup an inter-ministerial committee to look into the water crisis in Bulawayo, which saw the team visiting the Nyamandlovu Epping Forest and Rochester Aquifer last month.
This was after it was revealed that 60 000 Bulawayo residents have been affected by water shortage caused by theft and vandalism of electricity infrastructure at the aquifer resulting in the city pumping three mega litres per day from the targeted 20 mega litres per day.
Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Settlement, Dr Anxious Masuka.
The inter-ministerial committee include the Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Settlement, Dr Anxious Masuka, Energy and Power Development Minister Cde Zhemu Soda, Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Minister Cde Kazembe Kazembe and Bulawayo Provincial Affairs and Devolution Minister Judith Ncube.
The Rochester Epping Forest water supply system was a major investment by Government that came as a stop gap measure for the supply of water to Bulawayo.
The long term is the Lake Gwayi-Shangani which is at 70 percent completion, while work is in progress to install the conveyance system (the 245 kilometres pipeline).
The short-term intervention is meant to alleviate the water problems.
