The Bulawayo City Council (BCC) has appealed for patience among residents as the city experiences water problems with residents enduring four days without running water.
The local authority is currently rehabilitating the Criterion Water Treatment Plant as part of efforts to improve the supply of water in the city.
To this end, residents have not been having water since Tuesday and council officials have indicated that water supplies will resume on Saturday in most areas.
Prior to the rehabilitation project, the city has been facing a 48-hour water shedding schedule blamed on low water levels at the city’s reservoirs due to several factors, among them, lack of foreign currency to purchase water purification chemicals and power outages affecting pumping capacity at its waterworks.
According to the council, rehabilitation works will be ongoing for the next five months which will lead to more water cuts at various intervals.
In a statement BCC Town Clerk, Christopher Dube said there is progress being made at the Criterion Water Works and residents are urged to remain patient until the water supply is fully restored in all areas.
“The members of the public are urged to be patient when supply is restored as the system will take a while to stabilize and for water to reach all the areas,” said Dube.
Dube noted that the central business district, hospitals and mines were not affected by the rehabilitation works.
“These are supplied by other service reservoirs which are not the Criterion Clear Water except for Thorngroove which is being catered for by water bowsers.”
The major rehabilitation works conducted at the Criterion Water Treatment plant are under the Bulawayo Water and Sewerage Services Improvement Project (BWSSIP) funded by the African Development Bank.
The programme is meant to improve municipal water supply and sanitation services in the city to improve health and social well being of residents.
