Technical water committee for Bulawayo

Bulawayo (New Ziana)-The Zimbabwe government has set up a technical committee to spearhead an initiative to improve the water and sanitation situation in Bulawayo over a 100-day period.

The 20-member committee chaired by former dean of the engineering faculty at National University of Science and Technology (NUST) Dr Annatonia Chinyama, will comprise of the responsible Ministry, water engineers, Public Health practitioners, the Environmental Management Agency, the Bulawayo City Council and members of the academia.

Recently, the government set up a similar committee, to solve severe water woes in the capital.

In an interview, Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Minister Anxious Masuka said the committee’s mandate would be to assist the local authority to ensure consistent and adequate supply of water to the residents.

“We set up a committee comprising of water experts from Bulawayo to work with the Bulawayo City Council to improve water supply from 125 megalitres a day to 175 mega litres a day within a 100-day period,” he said.

“This will be done through rehabilitation of Mzingwane Dam booster pump station including transformer upgrade to increase water delivery,” he said.

Masuka said the committee will strive to ensure improved portable water supply to consistently supply 16 mega litres a day from the Nyamandlovu Aquifer water supply system.

He said the other key term of refence for the committee is to produce a short, medium term and long term plan for sustainable improvement of water and sanitation services.

The committee will give direction in terms of water supply to the city and residents until the completion of the Lake Gwayi Shangani project.

“Government was futuristic in terms of thinking by constructing Lake Gwayi Shangani so that Bulawayo will have uninterrupted water supplies for the next 70 years. So far we have contracted 11 companies to do trenching for the 245 km pipeline,” said Masuka, adding that villagers from Binga, Hwange, Lupane, Bubi and Umguza will benefit from the project.

Bulawayo, which is grappling with perennial water shortages, is currently on a tight 72-hour water-shedding regime which is likely to be prolonged owing to the low levels of water in its supply dams..

The city relies on six supply dams, Insiza, Inyankuni, Lower Ncema, Upper Ncema, Umzingwane, and Mtshabezi which are all located in Matabeleland South province.

New Ziana