THE Bulawayo City Council (BCC) is contemplating setting up its own alternative energy sources and is currently soliciting expressions of interest to deliver electricity that will allow the authority to pump water, according to the latest council minutes.
As a result of energy load shedding at Ncema, Inyankuni, and Fernhill, the city council has been forced to cease running water supplies to homes, which has been described as the only option to “protect the supply and distributing reservoirs from collapsing.”
Lack of electricity has also resulted in a lack of treatment and pumping of water into the city.
While reviewing the state of Bulawayo’s water resources, Councillor Arnold Batirai stated that it was time for BCC to plan for future power supply and consider developing its own energy source.
This was after the Acting Principal Water Engineer explained there was a challenge with the transformer at uMzingwane.
He stated that the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) was contacted to repair the pump, but the authority instead proposed that BCC lease a transformer from them in order to pump more water and avoid water shedding.
The Acting Principal Water Engineer also highlighted that every transformer after the meter in water installations belonged to Council and that the department was currently compiling a list of such transformers and that such challenges were also seen at Nyamandlovu.
However, Alderman Ernest Rafamoyo, said there was an urgent need for BCC to buy a new transformer, rather than leasing, as that “ would be expensive.”
“Rather find quotations for a new transformer or alternative power supply,” read the council minutes as Rafamoyo also urged management to look into the conditions of the lease.
Bulawayo Town Clerk, Christopher Dube, said the BCC would explore purchasing its own transformer, while the council was working on an alternative energy source with a company. “Expressions of interest were received from other players and Council was accordingly weighing the best option,” read the council minutes.
Meanwhile, Chamber Secretary Sikhangele Zhou advised that vandalism at Nyamandlovu was the greatest challenge, although a Ministerial Committee had encouraged BCC to assist with security.
A security survey had been conducted by BCC but questions were raised about affording security services because the Nyamandlovu boreholes were part of the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) infrastructure.
Security, stated the council, would necessitate extra resources, resulting in a significant cost to BCC, as would accommodation for security staff.
