Bulawayo City Council’s (BCC) Director of Engineering Services, Eng Sikhumbuzo Ncube, has warned that the effects of the El Nino drought could lead to prolonged water shedding in the city.
Eng Ncube was addressing members of the media at a Press Conference held recently, on the possible effects posed by the El Nino on water supply in the city.
Bulawayo residents are already enduring a 72-hour water-shedding schedule, with some going for longer hours without running water.
“Bulawayo has always been in a water crisis and what I would like to applaud about the residents is that we have a water preservation culture. We are aware of our problem and we are a resilient people. El Nino means drought and right now our dam levels are on 44 percent. We have already decommissioned Umzingwane dam. We know that when such announcements are made, what follows,” Eng Ncube said.
“When we decommission Umzingwane it means that we are increasing our water shedding regime. This is going to be discussed in the coming council meetings. We should be prepared for tighter water shedding measures. We are already in water shedding, it will only be intensified.
Our rains are usually most between December and March. The El Nino means that there will be uncertainties of having good run-off into the dams. So if that is put into the equation, it means that our dam levels might not receive enough rains into the next year, so if that’s the case we need to prepare.”
Eng Ncube said the city has several strategies put in place to augment the water challenges should the El Nino worsen.
“One of the strategies that the city has is to intensify water shedding hours. From 72 they may move to 96 or 120 in the worst-case scenario, the other strategy is to revisit our water kiosks. We are already disinfecting these and dedicating bowsers to them,” he said.
“We will also engage our donor community so that they may help us with rehabilitation of boreholes. We have 419 dotted around the city but some are not working. We will also do awareness campaigns for our people so that they can take better responsibility of their infrastructure and improve on water conservation.”
