BULAWAYO City Council is pushing for wastewater recycling as a sustainable solution to the city’s endemic water crisis.
This emerged during a recent two-day Trade Effluent and Water Recycling Indaba held in partnership with the Nerthelands-based entities Vitens Evides International (VEI) and Programma Uitzending Managers (PUM).
The two entities have been providing technical assistance to the City on water resources management.
Residents are currently enduring a 96 weekly water shedding regime as the local authority struggles to meet demand.
Bulawayo requires 165 megalitres of water per day against its restricted delivery capacity of 122 megalitres per day.
The municipality, through its Water Operator Partnership with VEI, applied for and received Project Preparatory funding (Prepfund) of €100 000 to conduct a Pre-Feasibility and Public-Private Partnership (PPP) study for the recycling of wastewater effluent to augment the scarce raw water supply.
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Acting assistant director for water and danitation, Kwanele Sibanda, said the results of the feasibility proves that there is an appetite for reclaimed water from the industry.
“From the preliminary findings that we have conducted, there is a strong measurable demand for non-potable water from major industrial users, such as production plants like the Zimbabwe Power Company, as well as other manufacturing companies,” Sibanda said.
“We also looked at the possibility of our fire emergency services using this secondary water.”
She noted that the municipality installed some flowmeters in a bid to establish the quantities of wastewater that can be converted to reclaimed water.
“The objective is to explore the potential for recycling wastewater to address the water scarcity, and also to evaluate the technical, financial, environmental, and social viability of the project,” she said.
Bulawayo mayor, David Coltart highlighted the impact of illegal mining activities near the city’s water supply dams.
“Damaged tributaries are feeding major rivers, leading some dams to fail in collecting water compared to others in the same catchment areas.”
Council once toyed around with the idea of recycling heavily polluted water at Khami dam, the first supply dam to be built for the city in 1927.
It was decommissioned in 1988 due to heavy pollution.
Council estimates that it requires about US$26 million to purify the dam’s water for consumption.