BCC left with 23-day supply of water chemicals

THE Bulawayo City Council (BCC) is left with a paltry 23-day supply of water chemical stocks, a situation that is likely to impact negatively on the water supply situation in the city and worsen water woes.

This comes amid revelations that the local authority has totally run out of ammonia while they are left with 23 days of aluminium sulphate.

Aluminium sulphate is mainly used as a flocculating agent in the purification of drinking water and  at waste water treatment plants while ammonia is used in conjunction with chlorine to produce potable water.

According to the latest council report the director of engineering services, Engineer Simela Dube, recently sent an urgent email to the town clerk, Mr Middleton Nyoni, alerting him on the dwindling supply of the chemicals and the need for them to take urgent action.

"I notice water chemical stock levels (aluminium sulphate) have dwindled to only 23 days availability. When is the next stock being delivered considering the present high rate of usage due to high raw water turbidity?

"There has been no ammonia for a long time now, are there any challenges to procure this chemical, we need to take action, we have moved from holding a six-month supply to 23 days, this is critical and we need to take urgent action," reads the email.

Contacted for comment the city's mayor, Councillor Thaba Moyo, said there was no need for residents to panic as three weeks was a long period for them to quickly raise funds and purchase the chemicals.

He said it was unfortunate that Unicef, which used to supply them with chemicals had effectively stopped doing so but they still could approach it to assist in case of emergency.

"Although the Unicef deal came to an end, we still can approach them if we become really desperate but I still feel three weeks is a long period and a lot can happen during that time," said Clr Moyo.

Meanwhile, the Government has said it was working on assisting local authorities in the country procure water treatment chemicals after they noted that a number of councils were facing challenges in securing the chemicals following the departure of Unicef.

Deputy Minister of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development, Mr Sesel Zvidzai, said they had noted that some local authorities were struggling to cope following Unicef's departure.

Unicef withdrew from a multimillion-dollar water treatment partnership with local authorities in which the United Nations agency assisted councils with procuring water treatment chemicals.

"We are fully aware that there are some local authorities that are struggling to meet their water chemicals supply obligations after the Unicef pull out that is why we are working on ways in which we can assist them procure the water treatment chemicals," said Deputy Minister Zvidzai.

He said they were also engaging Unicef authorities in the country to resume full-scale assistance if the situation did not improve.

A couple of years ago the city also endured an acute shortage of water treatment chemicals that resulted in the cessation of purification of water at its Criterion Water Works.

Unicef started supplying local authorities with water treatment chemicals after the cholera outbreak in 2008.