Harare(New Ziana)-As the water situation in Bulawayo worsens, residents will for the next two weeks be getting the precious liquid as and when it is available, unlike in the past when they were getting it once a week.
In a statement, the Bulawayo City Council announced the suspension of the 144-hour water shedding programme which had seen residents getting water only once a week.
Town clerk Christopher Dube said the local authority was facing pumping challenges at two of its major reservoirs due to theft of electricity supply cables.
“The City of Bulawayo would like to advise the public of water supply interruptions to all areas fed by the Magwegwe and Criterion reservoirs for a further two weeks up to Friday, the 28th of August 2020. Should the system normalise before then, the City will revert back to the water shedding programme.
“The interruption is due to the prolonged time needed for the city’s reservoirs to recover since the theft of 2 km of electricity supply cables on the 31st of July 2020, as well as recent three emergency leaks repairs to the Nyamandlovu line on the 6th of August 2020, and the latest power supply challenges to the Rochester Nyamandlovu boreholes which occurred at night on Thursday, 13 August 2020 and which ZETDC is currently working on.
“These factors against the background of City Average Consumption which for the last two weeks has continued to be higher than supply have resulted in the prolonged recovery of the City’s Reservoirs. This is further compounded by the low dam levels,” he said.
Dube said the residents would now receive brief supplies only to fill up their containers.
“Council is with immediate effect suspending regular and scheduled supply based on the 144 –hour shedding programme.
“Supplies from both Magwegwe and Criterion shall be available on and off basis, depending on the reservoirs levels to allow for the consumers to only fill up their containers. This shall be reviewed regularly until Friday 28th August 2020, a date which we envisage the system to have recovered for supply to be regularised to allow for reversion back to the 144hour weekly shedding programme,” he said.
Bulawayo residents have been restricted to receiving tap water once a week since May this year largely owing to dwindling dam water levels due to successive droughts experienced in the country.
New Ziana
