Bulawayo residents can expect more reliable water supplies after improved dam levels and the ongoing rehabilitation of key pumping infrastructure significantly strengthened the city's water security.
The recovery marks a dramatic turnaround from 2023 and 2024, when the city's dam levels dipped below 30%, forcing authorities to impose a crippling 120-hour water-shedding programme.
Some areas, such as Trenance, went nearly three years without running water, while residents elsewhere queued for hours at communal taps or turned to expensive private vendors.
The crisis, rooted in a toxic mix of climate-driven droughts, ageing infrastructure, and illegal gold mining that silts up river catchments, had turned water into a daily struggle for the city's 1.2 million people.
The city’s director of water and sanitation, Sikhumbuzo Ncube, said the Bulawayo now has a much stronger water outlook than it has had over the past four to five years.
"We can safely say we have better water compared to the last four or five years," he said.
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The city draws its water from the Nyamandlovu Aquifer and six major dams: Insiza, Mtshabezi, Inyankuni, Upper Ncema, Lower Ncema, and Umzingwane.
Latest statistics show the dams are collectively 66.06% full, with Mtshabezi standing at 99.99% capacity and Insiza at 85.75%, providing a healthier reserve than in recent memory.
Mtshabezi is the only new dam built since the country’s independence in 1980, underscoring decades of under-investment in alternative sources.
Ncube, however, cautioned that the city still faces challenges in delivering water to consumers because of ageing infrastructure across the supply system, as seen in frequent pump breakdowns and pipe bursts.
“Although we have a reasonable amount of water, we still have challenges along the value chain of water delivery," he said.
To improve efficiency, the council recently commissioned four pumps at Umzingwane and is rehabilitating additional pumps and motors at the Ncema pump station.
The rehabilitation programme will restore both the Sulzer and Flowserve pumping lines, increasing pumping capacity to a combined 105 megalitres per day—nearly doubling the amount of raw water delivered for treatment.
This is expected to boost treatment output at Criterion Water Works, increase the volume of treated water reaching service reservoirs, and enhance supply reliability across the city.
The improvements are also expected to reduce water-shedding, allowing residents to receive water more frequently and ensuring a fairer distribution of available supplies.