The Bulawayo City Council (BCC) has revealed that the defective Non-Return Valves (NRVs) installed at the city’s main water pumping stations will be replaced at no cost to the local authority.
This follows reports that the local authority had failed to meet it deadline of commissioning the new pumps due to the defective valves which were meant to enable the city to pump about 180 megalitres from the current 150 megalitres.
In a statement on Wednesday, Acting Town Clerk Sikhangele Zhou said the commissioning of the new pumping system which is 88 percent complete which was planned for December 2020 was rescheduled following the failure of the four NVRs.
Zhou revealed that the non-return valves protect the pumps when it is switched off or when there is a power outage and they prevent the backflow from the water in the rising main.
“The US$7.5 million contract for this project component was awarded in 2018 and is nearing completion. Commissioning of the new pumping system was planned for 11 December 2020. However, commissioning has been rescheduled due to the failure of four non-return valves (NRVs) which are an integral part of the pumping system,” she said.
She added that “under the terms, the contractor has a contractual obligation to rectify the challenges and deliver a fully functional pumping system to the City of Bulawayo. The contractor is replacing the failed non-return valves at no cost to Council”.
Meanwhile, the Acting Town Clerk said the first stage will see one pump at each pump station in operation by the end of January 2021.
“A progressive solution has been agreed with the contractor for commissioning of the new system which is underway. The first stage will see one pump at each pump station in operation by the end of January 2021 which will deliver an average of 52ML/day of water to criterion water treatment works,” she said.
“This forms part of the incremental solution, progressively working towards a fully commissioned pumping system, which will deliver an average of 82ML/ day of water to criterion by 15 March 2021”.
Zhou also advised residents that the Municipality will continue with the irregular supplies up to the end of January.
“This being the case, residents are advised that the City of Bulawayo will therefore continue with the intermittent supplies up to the end of January and normal supplies dependent on the available water in the City’s dams from mid-March 2021 when the contractor will hand over the equipment to the City of Bulawayo. Council will do all it can within the contractual provisions of the contract to ensure the new commissioning deadline is met,” she said.
