The Sunday News
Rutendo Nyeve, Sunday News Reporter
THE water situation in Bulawayo will, as from next week, slightly improve as the government has since intervened to address the vandalism crisis at the Nyamandlovu Rochestor-Epping Forest facility which had seen it now pumping a mere three megalitres a day as compared to an operational capacity of 20 megalitres.
The vandalism at the facility has seen more than 17 transformers disappearing among other components that include cables and copper wires.
Bulawayo is currently under a 48-hour water shedding schedule with some areas going for longer as the city continues to suffer from the perennial water shortages.
In the backdrop of the vandalism at the facility, a five-member Inter-Ministerial team on Wednesday toured the area to assess progress in ensuring that the Zimbabwe National Water Authority manages to return to pumping to full operational capacity.
The team comprised of the Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water, Climate and Rural Development Dr Anxious Masuka, Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing July Moyo, Deputy Minister of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Ruth Maboyi, Minister of Energy and Power Development Soda Zhemu and Bulawayo’s Minister of Provincial Affairs and Devolution Judith Ncube.
Speaking after the visit and a closed door meeting that included various stakeholders, Dr Masuka said the level of vandalism was unacceptable and Government had since put in place various interventions to ensure the water supply is restored.
“Against an installed capacity of 26 megalitres a day and an operational capacity of 20 megalitres per day for sustainability, the Rochester Epping forest system is only able to conveyance the City of Bulawayo three mega litres a day because of vandalism of transformers, of cables that supply the boreholes and also theft of copper wires.
“This certainly has become unacceptable and a major security threat. I brought with me this inter-ministerial team to be able to assess on the ground and be able to give first hand advise on how we can restore the Bulawayo water supply to 20 mega litres within the next seven days,” said Dr Masuka.
He said the visit will see various interventions being made that should restore capacity by Tuesday next week.
“This is the exercise that we have just completed and it consists of an array of interventions which the public will be able to see. We will enhance security in the area and we will also restore everything into functionality and pump the 20 megalitres per day by Tuesday next week,” said Dr Masuka.
Due to the security nature of many of the interventions, Dr Masuka said he could not divulge some of them but however warned those involved in vandalism as the long arm of the law would catch up with them.
“I will not comment but we will certainly be able to see more arrests, more community awareness and more physical deterrence. This level of vandalism cannot be left unchallenged. Whoever is involved is warned,” said Dr Masuka.
The Rochestor 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 conveyancing system (the 245 kilometres pipeline). The short term intervention is meant to alleviate the water problems. Dr Masuka said Government is determined to ensuring this short term solution works while putting in place the stable, sustainable long term solution.
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