Mayor Thaba Moyo: Bulawayo needs more supply dams

Bulawayo needs at least three more supply dams to have adequate water supplies, Mayor Thaba Moyo has said.

Addressing delegates during a local level dialogue workshop at a hotel in the city on Tuesday, Mr Moyo said Bulawayo was operating with a deficit of three dams hence the perennial water problems.

"The five dams we have as a city are not enough to meet the demand of a growing urban population. Even if we receive good rains and all the dams are full, Bulawayo will still remain facing water problems."

The mayor said the city's population was growing very fast yet no new dams were being built to meet the growing demand.

He estimated that Bulawayo's population is 1,5 million. The last dam to have been built, Insiza, was commissioned 36 years ago.

Mr Moyo said: "Water problems in Bulawayo did not start yesterday, but have been there since Bulawayo attained city status in 1943.

"To date, we still have five supply dams, Umzingwane, Upper and Lower Ncema, Inya-nkuni and Insiza dam, the last to be built in 1976."

He said the city needed a new supply dam every 10 years to meet demand.

"The population has grown bigger and a lot of developments have taken place. The situation is worsened by the fact that all the dams we have are in the southern region, which has been affected by droughts."

He said, with the current water levels in the dams, the city would face a real crisis in the next nine months.