THE Bulawayo City Council yesterday denied responsibility for finding alternative sources of water for the country’s second city grappling with a punitive water rationing schedule.
Report by Blondie Ndebele Own correspondent
Addressing TelOne workers at the local authority’s Blue Monday Water Conservation Campaign, the Water Supplies engineer Dumani Gwetu said council’s role “is to lobby and push the government, through Zimbabwe National Water Authority, to provide alternative sources of water”.
“Every city will not remain static (in population growth),” he said.
“The council does not build dams anymore. It is the central government’s duty to do that.
“We don’t supply raw water to the residents, it is the central government’s role through Zinwa which has the mandate to supply raw water to the local authority.”
Gwetu said Insiza Dam was currently supplying the city with 45 megalitres of water daily. Lower Ncema supplies about 27 megalitres, while Inyankuni provides 18 megalitres.
He said daily consumption was fluctuating between 101 megalitres and 104 megalitres against the city’s supply of 94 megalitres.
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Gwetu said there were still some certain logistic problems that needed to be addressed before the commissioning of the Mtshabezi water project meant to provide the city with about 17 megalitres daily.
Bulawayo mayor Patrick Thaba Moyo said council would try its best to lobby the government to find alternative sources of water, “as well as come up will measures to manage the current situation”.
“Even if we had all the five dams (operating), they will not have been adequate. We will try to manage the consumption until the situation improves,” he said.
Officials said the city was left with 38% of water supplies, inclusive of the one in the decommissioned dams.
Gwetu said if the city did not get significant rains by December 31, “Bulawayo will need a cyclone to survive”.
