(Last Updated on February 6, 2021 by GERALD NCUBE)
BULAWAYO – Residents are likely to see an end to the current water woes after the Bulawayo City Council announced that it expects to suspend the ongoing water-shedding programme around mid-March.
In a statement, the City’s Mayor Solomon Mguni said the supply dams were now at 53% capacity due to the good rains, adding that Council had resolved to start rolling out a progressive water restoration strategy.
“Council met and resolved for the progressive rolling out of the water restoration strategy against the available pumping capacity so as to slowly introduce a programmable water shedding which will be gradually suspended towards mid-March 2021,” said Councillor Mguni.
He said the process of replacing obsolete water pumps at Fernhill and Ncema Pump stations was soon to be also completed and this was going to improve the treatment capacity.
“It will be recalled that last year the city council installed new Flowserve pumps to replace the obsolete KSB Pumps at both Fernhill and Ncema Pump Stations. The pumps were initially earmarked for technical commissioning in December 2020, but due to challenges faced with the failure of the Non-Return Valves, the commissioning was rescheduled for January 2021.
“The additional pumping through the Flowserve pumps is expected to increase the treatment capacity from the current 92ML/day to 145ML/day. This will assist in building the raw water reservoir and ensure its gradual restoration to the water supply system. The City had thus proposed a formal 144-hour water-shedding programme which will be gradually normalised to ensure water twice a week,” he added.
Mguni noted that the authorities anticipated introducing a scaled-down 72-hour shedding schedule by the third week of February when reservoirs would have stabilised.
The Mayor further said they expected to reduce the water-shedding to 48 hours which will be suspended by end of March.
This will make way for a fully charged system to supply water to the city 24 hours per day.