BCC introduces temporary water shedding

THE Bulawayo City Council (BCC) has introduced temporary water shedding in some suburbs to ease a two-day water crisis due to a fault at Fern Hill Pump station.

Council has since decided to send water bowsers to high lying areas affected by the breakdown of pumps at Fern Hill Pump station which supplies Magwegwe and Criterion reservoirs.

High density suburbs such as Nkulumane, Nketa, Emganwini, Pumula, Cowdray Park, Gwabalanda, Luveve, Njube, Entumbane, Emakhandeni, Lobengula, Mpopoma, Matshobane, Iminyela, Pelandaba, Tshabalala, Sizinda and southern suburbs such as Newton West, and Bellevue which last had water supplies on Thursday.

BCC public relations officer Miss Bongiwe Ngwenya urged residents in the affected suburbs to conserve water, saying they had effected a temporary water shedding programme in those areas.

"Consumers are urged to conserve water as council will temporarily adopt a shedding programme to distribute what is produced in a fair manner. We've opened supplies for Cowdray Park, Gwabalanda and Luveve, while (water) bowsers will be sent to high lying areas such as Pumula South, Emganwini, Nketa and Nkulumane. We will continue to alternate the opening and closing of water until the situation normalises," she said.

Miss Ngwenya said council engineers are working to restore normal water supplies.

"Engineers are currently working flat out to bring the affected pump back online," she said.

Luveve MP Ntandoyenkosi Mlilo (Zanu-PF) said council had been slow in responding to the water crisis.

"They should have an effective disaster recovery plan and they should use us as MPs to tell the masses what is happening, why the water was cut etc," said Mlilo.