The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube, Senior Reporter
BULAWAYO residents will by the end of this week start getting water supplies 72 hours a week as the local authority continues to ensure improvement of the water situation in the city.
On Monday, Bulawayo City Council started implementing a 144-hour water shedding schedule after the coming online of their two new Flowserve water pumps at Fernhill and Ncema raw water pump stations.
The city had previously been implementing an as and when available supply situation, with Bulawayo facing its worst water crisis in recent years.
Engineer Simela Dube
Speaking after the commissioning of the 144-hour shedding schedule, BCC director of engineering services, Engineer Simela Dube said they were now working on further improving the shedding schedule to 72 hours by the end of this week.
“The Flowserve pumps were installed as from 2017 and commissioned, first in December 2020, however, due to a technicality in the non-return valves, the system could not operate, the contractor has managed to implement the first stage of the solution, where we are now running with two pumps, one from Ncema and another from Fernhill.
“The coming in of the Flowserve equipment means that the city is now getting an additional 55 megalitres of water per day which will increase our output to almost 145 megalitres per day. It is our target that by the end of this week we will reduce the water shedding further to 72 hours a week,” said Eng Dube.
