The Bulawayo City Council (BCC) has extended the citywide water-shedding programme to 72 hours due to persistent power challenges that have affected the abstraction and pumping of water from reservoirs.
This is after the local authority introduced a 48-hour water-shedding programme last week Friday, claiming it was prompted by continued power cuts at Ncema, Fernhill and Criterion Water Works including persistent challenges at Nyamandlovu Rochester.
In a new notice, the BCC Town Clerk, Christopher Dube said the three-day water-shedding programme was due to further delays in the recovery of the pumping system when it was affected by electricity outages that occurred over two weeks.
“The power outages resulted in the loss of and subsequently subdued abstraction and pumping. Further correspondence from the Zimbabwe Electricity Distribution Company (ZETDC) shows that they will be working on the Hwange Power Grid link for another week beginning November 16, 2021, from 7 am to 7 pm every day which will continue to disrupt Nyamandlovu pumping,” he said.
“Pumping from Nyamandlovu will be reduced from the regular 15 megalitres per day to three megalitres per day. In addition, a burned transformer at Umzingwane Dam disrupted raw water delivery. ZETDC has so far installed a temporary transformer that can only handle 50 percent of the pumping capacity.”
The town clerk said it was against this background of limited water delivery that BCC was introducing the 72-hour water shedding to avoid system collapse.
“Bulawayo City Council wishes to apologise to its valid consumers for any inconvenience caused,” Dube declared.
The 72-hour shedding schedule is as follows:
