As water shortages continue to plague residents of Bulawayo, city engineers are exploring new options, including tapping into aquifers in Nkulumane, Nketa, and Hope Fountain, as part of ongoing efforts to address the crisis.
Residents have been enduring a 120 hour water shedding, with those in the higher-altitude areas reporting that they have gone for months without receiving water.
During a water situation update meeting held Wednesday at the Large City Hall, Director of Engineering Services, Engineer Sikhumbuzo Ncube, provided a grim update on the city’s water supply and revealed that the combined storage capacity now stands at just 30 percent.
“Nkulumane and Nketa has one of the best groundwater occurrences in the City, so we want to, instead of taking water from the boreholes only, we want to create a mini-criterion or a mini- Nyamandlovu in Nketa there, we dig the water, treat it and you drink it there in Emganwini, Nketa and Nkulumane. We hope that will resolve the problem,” Eng. Ncube said.
The engineer added that the tender process has been awarded for water exploration in Nketa, Nkulumane and Hope Fountain, marking a significant step in the city’s intervention efforts.
Eng. Ncube also shared that the city has also reached out to various embassies and government ministries in a bid to secure assistance.
“We have been lobbying the three key Ministries that are tackling the water situation, the Ministry of Local Governance and Public Works, the Ministry of Water and also the Ministry of Finance and Investment Promotion. We have also been riding on the declaration by his Excellence which was declared in April 2024 when the declaration was that we are now experiencing drought induced disaster and Bulawayo is not spared,” he said.
“I would like to emphasise that in so doing we wrote various letters and these letters were written to Ministries, we even also wrote seven letters to different Embassies, the British Embassy, the United States Embassy, the EU Embassy, the Chinese Embassy, we have also engaged Dutch Embassy, the Swedish Embassy and also engaged the Belgian Embassy.”
The city engineer said each of these letters written to the several Embassies was accompanied by a proposal of US$55 million.
“Engagements have been done, proposals have been written. We have also engaged the African Development Bank, the World Bank. Funding requests were ranging between US$15 million and US$55 million,” he said.
Eng. Ncube said they have secured EURO 310 000 to explore the underground water sources in the Suburban areas.
“ We have since secured EURO 134. 090 under the Dutch funding for Magwegwe Reservoir and works are in progress, we are doing preparations to get works ongoing to return Magwegwe reservoir, the leakage that we are experiencing. We also secured EURO 310 000, this money is going to explore the ground water potential,” Ncube said.
Since 2010, the local authority has secured US$74 million for various water-related projects, but a further US$160 million is still needed to fully address the city’s challenges.
The engineer also highlighted work done by the Bulawayo Water Committer, which was set up Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, Dr Anxious Masuka, adding that they came up with a detailed report on the challenges experienced by the city including a number of projects meant to address those water challenges.
“The Water Committee comprises different technocrats from the Ministry of Water, ZINWA, City of Bulawayo and other technocrats. The purpose of this Bulawayo water committee is there to support and assist the city of Bulawayo in addressing the water and sanitation challenges that we are facing as a city,” he said.
“Its first assignment was to come up with a detailed report of the challenges that we are experiencing as a city and that report was then submitted to the ministry, and that report is what came up with a number of projects. It highlighted the need for us to look into UMzingwane pumps, Inyakuni, Cowdray Park pipeline , non revenue water projects and also sewer related projects.”
