Bulawayo to cut water supplies to just 36 hours per week for residents

The City of Bulawayo is set to introduce a more drastic water conservation regime which will see water coming out of the taps for just 36 hours in a week, or one-and-a-half days.

The second city, with a population of over 650,000, is currently only able to provide running water to residents for two days in a week.

Now the city says it stopped drawing water from one of its supply dams, Upper Ncema, on October 3 after its water levels dipped below the usable quantum. It is the second of the city's six dams to be decommissioned after pumping stopped from Umzingwane Dam in January this year.

"To ensure continued supply of water ahead of the next rainy season, which is expected to commence in December 2024, more stringent measures are necessary. As such the department is therefore proposing implementing a 132-hour water shedding programme," the city's department of water and sanitation said in a briefing to councillors last week.

Engineers say the four dams still supplying water are "currently at a critical 30,16 percent" of their capacity.

Mtshabezi is 50.79 percent full, Insiza Mayfair 40.33 percent, Lower Ncema 21.46 percent and Inyankuni 18.07 percent.

Bulawayo mayor David Coltart has called on the government to declare a water disaster in Bulawayo, which would allow the local authority to mobilise local and international assistance, but cabinet has withheld the declaration.

The council has also proposed other short-term measures to deal with the water crisis, including building a new dam on Mzingwane River in the Bopoma area in Insiza and Gwanda districts, but that too awaits approval by ministers.

The US$100 million dam would be constructed by private companies who will recoup their investment by selling water to Bulawayo before transferring ownership to the government after several years.

Coltart says the project requires "cabinet authority" to enable the companies led by JR Goddard to mobilise financing. The African Development Bank and two Zimbabwean commercial banks are reportedly being tapped to fund the project.

Coltart told ZimLive: "In essence, we cannot begin formal applications for funding until we have obtained cabinet authority and that is where the delay is. We had hoped to have it by end of August but it hasn't come yet.

"Once we have that, the formal funding applications will commence. There is a lot of goodwill in the international community towards the project so I remain hopeful that we will get funding."

A long term solution to Bulawayo's water troubles – which the government is championing – is the Gwayi Shangani Dam, but construction has stalled since 2022, hampered by funding challenges with several deadlines missed.

Upon the dam's completion, a 257km pipeline costing US$400 million will take water from the dam to Bulawayo.

With funding for the pipeline still to be raised and the dam far from completion, the City of Bulawayo is focusing its attentions on short term solutions including upgrading pipelines from existing water sources.

"Gwayi Shangani is a wonderful long term project but we cannot rely on it to resolve our short and medium term water crisis," says Coltart. "The solution lies in the construction of Glassblock Bopoma Dam and in investigating whether we can enhance water supplies from Nyamandlovu aquifer together with other aquifers which may exist close to the city. For these to become a reality it is vital that we all work collectively and constructively to make these projects a reality. Time is not on our side and we all need to act urgently to avoid an ongoing crisis and a possible catastrophe."