Bulawayo Mayor has urged residents not to panic about the current water situation, as the local authority is making strategies to guide residents through the dry season and has called for the deployment of security services to guard against vandalism at the Nyamandlovu Aquifer.
This came out during the stakeholder consultative meeting to unpack the local authority’s service delivery blueprint, which was launched by President Mnangagwa on November 1, 2023.
One of the major issues that emerged in the meeting was the current water crisis in the city.
Bulawayo City Council (BCC) Director of Engineering Services, Engineer Skhumbuzo Ncube, said the current water shedding might be the worst since independence.
“We have been in this situation since 2018; the water situation has been worsening since 2018, 2019 till date. Our dams have never been full since 2018; actually, 2024-2025 might be the worst drought since independence. 1982 was even better than this year in 2024. Currently, our dams are sitting at 43 percent. You know that around this time, in February to March, this is the peak of the rainy season. Naturally, we should have our dams around 65-70 percent full, but we are at 43 percent,” he said.
“We have been shedding water; we had 20 hours in 2022, it moved to 72 hours in August 2022 up to November 26, 2022. We entered 120 hours recently in December. So, the situation is becoming worse and worse, and when the situation worsens, we have those high-lying areas—Tashas in Mganwini, Nkulumane, Pumula, Magwegwe, Entumbane, Cowdray Park. In those areas, when it is like this, they will always have a problem.”
He said the council installed water kiosks, but there is no ownership within the community to manage the infrastructure that was put in place as augmentation to manage the current situation. “We are appealing to residents to manage these, especially boreholes.”
However, Mayor David Coltart stressed that there are strategies by the local authority to take residents through the winter season and summer.
“It is very important that our general public understand our strategy. Nyamandlovu is our strategy to get it up to full capacity and to protect it. To do that, we need the police and possibly even the army. If we protect Nyamandlovu, that will help because that water comes into Magwegwe, and Magwegwe supplies the high-density suburbs,” he said.
He said the second strategy is Mtshabezi Dam, which is over 70 percent full and the lifeline of the city.
“We have a strategy where our engineers have devised a plan to protect that water and increase the flow from Mtshabezi. It is the construction of a 2.5km bypass pipeline. It’s a small job, it can be done, and when it’s done, it will improve the water.”
He said the other strategy is the rehabilitation of Insiza Dam, “We will, as a city, get through this crisis. We must not panic.”
Coltart said the local authority understands that poor people are the ones suffering during this crisis.
“We understand as a council that poor people are suffering. People in lower-density suburbs have water tanks; many have boreholes. They are not as adversely affected as people in Cowdray Park. We are acutely aware that those are the worst affected. Many of our poorest residents in this city are battling to get storage tanks, for young mothers who have to clean nappies, for the elderly, for the city, it is an ultimate crisis and it is unacceptable that we have this 120-hour water shedding,” he said.
The Mayor called for the local authority and the government to work together.
“In a state of crisis like this, there is no time for us to be scoring political points or acting in a partisan fashion. Whatever has happened in the past must remain in the past. Now is the time for the city council and the government to work closely together to address this crisis. Unless we work closely together, we are not going to resolve this crisis.”
He added that the Glass Block Dam, which is a medium-term solution, will be a game-changer for the city.
The Town Clerk, Christopher Dube, called for residents to work with the local authority and report those vandalising the infrastructure to the police.
“We have serious vandalism here in the city. In Sizinda, there is a lot of vandalism. We are trying to ration so that we can give water to other people, but others are busy vandalising because they want to get water every day to water their gardens, for that matter,” he said.
Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Judith Ncube, said her office is also making a follow-up on the Glass Block Dam as it will benefit the city.
“Just yesterday, we met with the EU ambassador in my office. We discussed many things highlighted by the mayor, and of interest were issues of water in Bulawayo. We informed the ambassador that the office of the Minister of State from Matabeleland South, together with her delegation and my office, met simply to discuss the issue of the glass block dam. After our meeting, we agreed that we need to have a follow-up meeting with relevant stakeholders because we need to find a way forward together. It is an initiative that has been taken up by the people of Bulawayo,” she said.”
