News / Regional
Fears Gwanda water could be contaminated again
25 Feb 2013 at 04:47hrs | Views
THERE are fears that raw water from the Zimbabwe National Water Authority's weir might have been contaminated again.
This has forced the water agency to re-introduce water rationing in Gwanda Town.
A weir is the last place where water is drawn on its way to the water treatment plant. It is the nearest place to the treatment plant.
Blanket Dam supplies Gwanda Town, about 10km from the weir.
In an interview on Thursday, a Zinwa official, who requested anonymity, said there were indications that raw water in the Zinwa weir might have been contaminated once again.
"There is a possibility that raw water in our weir has been contaminated again because the quality of water has become relatively poor and we have been forced to reduce the pumping of water to Gwanda Town to 12hours from 18," he said.
The water is suspected to have been contaminated along the way to the weir, as there are also reports that Blanket Dam was spilling.
The suppressed pH (a measure of how acidic or basic a substance is) value of raw water and the high levels of turbidity have fuelled the fears of contamination.
Two weeks ago there was suspicion that the water could be contaminated but Zinwa had managed to bring the contamination under control. There are a lot of legal and illegal mining activities taking place in the surrounding areas and recently traces of cyanide were detected in the raw water in the Zinwa weir.
"In the meantime we are not operating at full capacity and we have asked the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) to investigate the issue," said the Zinwa official.
He said this time Zinwa had not taken any samples for testing, but left everything to EMA.
However, as a result, Zinwa's stocks of water chemicals have gone down, as the contamination of water requires more chemicals than normal to be used in the water purification process.
This has forced the water agency to re-introduce water rationing in Gwanda Town.
A weir is the last place where water is drawn on its way to the water treatment plant. It is the nearest place to the treatment plant.
Blanket Dam supplies Gwanda Town, about 10km from the weir.
In an interview on Thursday, a Zinwa official, who requested anonymity, said there were indications that raw water in the Zinwa weir might have been contaminated once again.
"There is a possibility that raw water in our weir has been contaminated again because the quality of water has become relatively poor and we have been forced to reduce the pumping of water to Gwanda Town to 12hours from 18," he said.
The water is suspected to have been contaminated along the way to the weir, as there are also reports that Blanket Dam was spilling.
The suppressed pH (a measure of how acidic or basic a substance is) value of raw water and the high levels of turbidity have fuelled the fears of contamination.
Two weeks ago there was suspicion that the water could be contaminated but Zinwa had managed to bring the contamination under control. There are a lot of legal and illegal mining activities taking place in the surrounding areas and recently traces of cyanide were detected in the raw water in the Zinwa weir.
"In the meantime we are not operating at full capacity and we have asked the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) to investigate the issue," said the Zinwa official.
He said this time Zinwa had not taken any samples for testing, but left everything to EMA.
However, as a result, Zinwa's stocks of water chemicals have gone down, as the contamination of water requires more chemicals than normal to be used in the water purification process.
Source - TC
