BULAWAYO residents have been warned of month-long intermittent water cuts to allow the local authority to carry out maintenance and cleaning at its waterworks to “enhance the quality of water”.
By NQOBANI NDLOVU
The maintenance and cleaning programme at the council’s Ncema, Fernhill, Tuli and Criterion water reservoirs began yesterday and will end on July 7, Bulawayo City Council (BCC) town clerk Christopher Dube said.
Dube urged residents to conserve water during the month-long maintenance works at the waterworks, which he said would result in the disruption of supply of the precious liquid.
“The City of Bulawayo would like to advise members of the public and stakeholders that we will be carrying out a bulk water reservoir cleaning programme for Ncema, Fernhill, Tuli and Criterion clear water reservoirs to enhance the quality of water delivered to the city,” he said in a notice on Wednesday.
“There might be water supply disruptions should the reservoir ancillary components require maintenance, hence, customers are kindly requested to conserve water during the reservoir cleaning period.
“BCC wishes to apologise to its valued consumers for the inconvenience during the cleaning period.”
The maintenance works follow reports by a council future water supplies, and water action committee that the local authority is failing to pump water at full throttle at some of its works owing to the malfunction of filter beds.
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“Ncema water works had no capacity to pump a maximum of clear water due to the non-functional filter beds raw water since one KSB and two Sulzers were operational,” the report reads.
“On the other hand, a maximum capacity of pumping 52ML [megalitres] out of 70ML/day with only four out of seven pumps functional and 120ML out of 140ML/day, as two Sulzers were operational.”
Late last year, the local authority was forced to introduce stringent water rationing regime for the city, as the holding capacity had dwindled to alarming levels.
Bulawayo residents had been spared water cuts for months now after the city received huge rainfall, resulting in the supply dams spilling, some for the first time in decades.
Council has said Bulawayo’s water supply will last about three years.
