City's borehole water unsafe for consumption

THE Bulawayo City Council has warned residents against using borehole water for drinking and cooking without boiling it, as water from most boreholes in the city has not been tested.

The city has also announced a number of measures to avert a crisis in the wake of the release of a water-shedding schedule last week.

The schedule, designed to preserve dwindling water levels in the city's supply dams, was supposed to be implemented last week, but by yesterday, it had not.

Only the city centre and industrial areas were exempted from shedding, which would see residential areas being cut off twice a week, for eight hours each day.

According to the latest council report, the local authority anticipates that more residents would be turning to the 312 functional boreholes in the city due to water scarcity and ongoing water cuts to defaulting residents.

However, council has said suitability of water from the boreholes for human consumption could not be guaranteed as it was subject to contamination by bacteria from the soil at any time. "Due to a lack of adequate manpower, storage tanks and other material and financial resources, it is practically impossible for council to go about treating all borehole water sources scattered throughout the city. It was therefore recommended that for purposes of cooking and drinking, borehole water should be boiled and allowed to settle before use," read the report.

The report also showed that laboratory tests on a number of boreholes had proved that the water was bitter.

"Boreholes at Ingubo Primary School in Old Lobengula, Masotsha High School in Magwegwe North, Mbuyazwe Flats in Mzilikazi, were extremely salty and would impart a bitter taste upon consumption. The poor quality of water at Mbuyazwe Flats was due to the fact that that the area was once a municipal dumpsite," the report read.

Also according to the report, council has authorised the director of engineering services, Engineer Simela Dube, to be part of a delegation that would visit the Minister of Water Resources, Management and Development, Samuel Sipepa Nkomo, in Harare on Friday, to lobby for funds to complete the Insiza Pipeline duplication project.

Bulawayo is facing acute water shortages following the decommissioning of Upper Ncema Dam because of low water levels.

Theoretically, the city has about 17 months supply of water.

However, 80 percent of the water is in Insiza Dam that has a small pipeline, which cannot pump enough water to satisfy the city's demand.

Eng Dube summed up the situation early this year saying: "Insiza Dam contains 80 percent of the city's water. However, the dam can only supply 48 000 cubic metres of water per day due to the size of its pipeline. This is not adequate."

The city uses about 140 000 cubic metres of water per day, and according to reports, if poor rains continue this year, Insiza would be the only dam left to supply the city as, Lower Ncema, Umzingwane, and Inyankuni, were also likely to be decommissioned.

The council report shows that council was drawing about 3 505 cubic metres of water everyday from 31 boreholes in the Nyamandlovu Aquifer.

It also reveals that the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) was battling to get funding to equip five high-yielding boreholes drilled at Epping Forest to increase overall water output.

Last week, after releasing the water shedding schedule, council announced that it was setting up a water crisis committee and installing about 25 water tanks with a holding capacity of 500 cubic metres at schools and clinics to mitigate the effects of the programme.

Bulawayo was left in a dilemma after the Ministry of Water Resources, Management and Development failed again to meet the deadline for the Mtshabezi-Umzingwane pipeline last month.

The Mtshabezi project is viewed as a short-term solution to the city's perennial water problems.

The National Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project, which was first mooted in 1912, is viewed as the permanent solution.