Bulawayo water woes blamed on infrastructure, not supply

Bulawayo Mayor David Coltart has attributed the city's persistent water shedding to aging and inadequate infrastructure, despite significant improvements in dam levels following recent rains.

Speaking during a full council meeting, Coltart said water levels across the city's supply dams are now at their highest since 2017, but the gains have not translated into consistent supply for residents.

The Bulawayo City Council (BCC) reduced its weekly water-shedding schedule from 130 hours to 96 hours in January after improved inflows. However, some suburbs continue to experience longer outages than scheduled.

Coltart said the continued rains throughout March had raised expectations among residents, many of whom are questioning why water shortages persist.

"Residents are asking, 'why is it with all this rain that we still have water shedding?' It is a major challenge for us as councillors, the Town Clerk, and management to explain why, despite the fact that Mtshabezi is full, Insiza is very high, and even Inyankuni… is now around 30 percent, we are unable to deliver sufficient quantities of water," he said.

The mayor pointed to findings from a Water Technical Committee set up in early 2024 by Lands and Water Minister Anxious Masuka, which identified major weaknesses in Bulawayo's water delivery system.

One of the key issues is the Mtshabezi pipeline, which is operating far below its design capacity. Despite the dam overflowing since January, the pipeline is delivering only about nine megalitres per day against a capacity of 17 megalitres.

Coltart said frequent power outages affecting dedicated electricity lines are also disrupting pumping operations.

"The dedicated ZESA power line frequently goes down, which causes disruption in power supply and consequently water supply," he said.

He also highlighted structural design flaws in the pipeline linking Mtshabezi to the Mzingwane system, which limit efficient water transfer due to gravity and pressure constraints.

Aging infrastructure remains another major concern. The Insiza pipeline, built in 1975, has never been upgraded, while the Ncema-to-Thuli pipeline and its pumps are also outdated and in urgent need of rehabilitation.

Coltart added that the Thuli reservoir requires expansion from its current 45 megalitres to 90 megalitres to meet growing demand.

"All of these issues were identified and agreed upon nearly two years ago, but no progress has been made," he said.

According to the mayor, about US$15 million is needed to address the infrastructure challenges  -  funding he said the government had committed but has yet to release.

"We can have dams that are 100 percent full at the end of this season and still fail to deliver adequate water to residents. That is the physical engineering reality," Coltart warned.

He cautioned that without urgent investment in infrastructure upgrades, Bulawayo's water crisis will persist regardless of improved rainfall and dam levels.