News / Local
City council engages govt over water crisis
22 May 2012 at 04:46hrs | Views
The Bulawayo City Council has called on government to expedite the process of linking Mtshabezi Dam into Mzingwane Dam to allow the city to have one more supply dam ahead of the decommissioning of three others.
Bulawayo has perennial water problems, and so far this year, three dams which have been supplying water have run dry and will be decommissioned at the end of this month leaving the city to depend on only two dams.
The three dams: Upper Ncema, Lower Ncema and Mzingwane have run dry and the city will now rely only on Inyankuni and Insiza dams for water.
Bulawayo Mayor, Councilor Thaba Moyo says they have engaged the Ministry of Water Resources and Infrastructural Development about their problem, and indications are that significant progress has been made in the process but the obstacle is with the connection of electricity for the pumping of the water.
"We have been consulting with the Ministry of Water Resources and Infrastructural Development on how far they have gone through the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) to ensure that the link is speeded up, but we hear that all the connections have been made but the issue of electricity remains a major challenge. We hope that this will be done timely as we will have access to one more supply dam," said Councilor Moyo.
The link between Mtshabezi and Mzingwane Dams will ease the water woes which have bedeviled Bulawayo residents for years.
The city's supply dams, which are all located in the drought-prone Matabeleland South Province, quickly dry up due to very low rainfall patterns, resulting in the local authority's introduction of a stringent water rationing exercise every year.
Bulawayo has perennial water problems, and so far this year, three dams which have been supplying water have run dry and will be decommissioned at the end of this month leaving the city to depend on only two dams.
The three dams: Upper Ncema, Lower Ncema and Mzingwane have run dry and the city will now rely only on Inyankuni and Insiza dams for water.
"We have been consulting with the Ministry of Water Resources and Infrastructural Development on how far they have gone through the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) to ensure that the link is speeded up, but we hear that all the connections have been made but the issue of electricity remains a major challenge. We hope that this will be done timely as we will have access to one more supply dam," said Councilor Moyo.
The link between Mtshabezi and Mzingwane Dams will ease the water woes which have bedeviled Bulawayo residents for years.
The city's supply dams, which are all located in the drought-prone Matabeleland South Province, quickly dry up due to very low rainfall patterns, resulting in the local authority's introduction of a stringent water rationing exercise every year.
Source - zbc
