Bulawayo residents have called on the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development to make the city’s escalating water crisis a top priority in the 2025 national budget.
Their concerns were voiced during the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee’s public consultations on the upcoming budget held on Wednesday.
The residents highlighted the severity of the ongoing water shortages, warning that without urgent government intervention, the situation could deteriorate further.
Bulawayo has been grappling with critical water supply issues, prompting the local authority to impose drastic water-shedding measures, now at 132 hours per week, due to declining levels in the city’s dams.
Thandekile Moyo, a resident of Mzilikazi suburb, urged the government to allocate a portion of the country’s mineral revenues to the construction of new dams for Bulawayo.
“We hope the government can redistribute funds from mineral proceeds to address our water crisis. Some residents go weeks without water, and others are forced to use sewer water for flushing toilets, posing serious health risks. This is an urgent issue that needs to be resolved,” Moyo said.
Echoing Moyo’s sentiments, fellow resident Tsepang Nare suggested the creation of a dedicated water fund to assist struggling local authorities.
“We need a water fund initiative exclusively for supporting local authorities. While the government is levying boreholes to fund ZINWA, ZINWA already has multiple revenue streams. These funds could be redirected to local councils that are battling to provide adequate water services,” Nare added.
What are the possible solutions to the water crisis?
The local authority needs at least US$14 million to upgrade the pipelines from Insiza and Mtshabezi to access more water. Council has also appealed to the government to deploy more police or the army to Nyamandlovu Aquifer to protect the water infrastructure from vandalism.
The city is also pinning its hopes on the proposed Glass Block Dam which will be built on Mzingwane River in the Bopoma area in Insiza and Gwanda districts, but that too awaits approval by ministers. The US$100 million dam would be constructed by private companies who will recoup their investment by selling water to Bulawayo before transferring ownership to the government after several years.
A long-term solution to Bulawayo’s persistent water crisis is the much-anticipated Gwayi Shangani Dam project, which the government is spearheading. However, progress on the dam has been stalled since 2022 due to financial setbacks, causing multiple deadlines to be missed. Once completed, the dam will be linked to Bulawayo by a 257km pipeline.
