BCC reduces water shedding by 24 hours

THE Bulawayo City Council (BCC) is set to reduce the four-day water shedding scheme by 24 hours starting from Monday next week.

The council's future water supplies and water action committee met yesterday and resolved to reduce water shedding by one day in response to inflows into the city's supply dams.

Ward Five councillor Dr John Ferguson who chaired the committee's meeting yesterday, said this was good news for the city.

"We met as a committee today and we have some good news for the residents. Our chairperson Councillor Gideon Mangena was away and I chaired the meeting. We agreed to extend water supplies to residents to four days per week instead of three, starting from Monday," said Dr Ferguson.

He said the committee noted that the city's supply dams recorded some inflows and there were indications that the rains were likely to continue for sometime.

Dr Ferguson could, however, not be drawn to disclose the figures of the dam levels saying the recommendations of the committee would be tabled at the full council meeting today.

"There is a little bit of security but the matter will be discussed fully during the full council meeting tomorrow. We also discussed the issue of Mtshabezi Dam water and we expect the pipeline to be fully functional by the beginning of May when we expect to pump 17 000 cubic metres per day," said Dr Ferguson.

He said council was also seeking funding to duplicate the Insiza pipeline.

The councillor also said there was also a need to speed up the National Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project (NMZWP).

The city's Director of Engineering Services, Engineer Simela Dube, confirmed the meeting, but declined to disclose the details.

"Yes there was a meeting but I cannot disclose the details of what was discussed. I will present the report before the full council meeting tomorrow," said Eng Dube.

Bulawayo Mayor Clr Thaba Moyo said he will be briefed on the outcome of the meeting today.

"I am aware that the meeting took place but I did not attend. I hope a lot of detail will be discussed tomorrow," said Clr Moyo.

Bulawayo is pumping just a fraction of the 17 000 cubic metres that it is supposed to draw daily from Mtshabezi Dam because generators cannot pump continuously.

The city started pumping water from the dam mid last month following the completion of the Mtshabezi pipeline    project.

The 17 000 cubic metres a day is expected to reduce water shedding by 24 hours.

The city council introduced water shedding in all suburbs in July last year in a bid to conserve the limited supplies in the city's supply dams.

Bulawayo is operating with a deficit of about three supply dams. A dam is supposed to be constructed every 10 years to cater for an increasing population.

The NMZWP, viewed as the permanent solution to Bulawayo's perennial water crisis, was mooted way back in 1912 but the implementation of the first phase of the project which is the construction of the Gwayi/Shangani Dam only started a few weeks ago.

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