The Bulawayo City Council (BCC) requires at least US$40 million to deal with the ongoing water crisis with authorities currently engaging potential funders.
This is one of the short-term solutions discussed during a meeting between the Minister of Local Government and Public Works Winston Chitando and a delegation from BCC which was led by the mayor David Coltart and Town Clerk Christopher Dube.
Bulawayo residents are enduring serious water shortages and city officials have been struggling to find solutions to the water woes.
Addressing the media after the meeting, the mayor said while they have some of the money in local currency they did not have access to foreign currency.
“The problem is that it is in Zimbabwe dollars, we had gone out to contract with private companies for some of the work that needs to be done, not so much in Nyamandlovu, but it’s more on these works in Mtshabezi pipeline, Mzingwane and Nyankuni, those pump stations, but we have to appreciate, we don’t manufacture these pumps, the same with booster pumps that we need for Mtshabezi pipeline. So we put out to companies, but the problem is the companies are asking for foreign exchange because they need foreign exchange themselves, as we all know the Zimbabwean dollar has been greatly depreciating in the last month or so and the goalposts are continually moving for us as a council,” he said.
“We got that money but it’s difficult for us to import anything and to contract third parties, we are doing our utmost to contract as urgently as possible but that was our focus of the discussion today was to say, we are thankful for the ZWL$7 billion but that translates to round about US$500 000 which is nowhere close to the US$40 million that we need,” he said.
Minister Chitando affirmed the government’s commitment to address water challenges in the country’s second-largest city.
Chitando said that the government will provide security at the Nyamandlovu Aquifer where there are boreholes which supply a fraction of water supplies to the city.
“The second issue which we discussed is the government to facilitate investment in the short-term solutions of addressing the water situation in Bulawayo, about US$40 million is required and the mayor and town clerk have had meetings with several partners to participate in the funding, we will be engaging further to ensure that we unlock that funding,” said the minister.
The third issue which we discussed was to facilitate the city to get foreign currency to address some of the requirements, those are the three issues in the short term which are required which the government will address.”
Regarding the medium-term solutions, discussions centred on the construction of the Glass Block Dam which is anticipated to significantly augment the water inflows to Bulawayo by 70 percent.
“From the figures which the mayor gave us, will increase the inflows of water to Bulawayo by 70 percent and its near Mbalabala, from what they presented, its 32 km pipeline which is required to take water from Glass Block to Ncema and at the same time upgrade facilities at Ncema to then pump that increased water to Bulawayo,” he said.
The construction is likely to be completed in 2027.
“Once we implement the short term, medium term, the longer term will be longer because an increase of 70 percent inflows will not entirely resolve the long-term issues but it will significantly augment water supply to Bulawayo, but government is working full out to ensure water comes out from the Gwayi-Shangani dam,” he said.
Coltart expressed satisfaction with the government’s response, highlighting the city’s readiness to navigate the drought period.
“We are satisfied that we can take the city through this drought through this winter, which will require about US$14 million to do that work, we explained to the Minister that the difficulty we are experiencing with local companies, we have to import using hard currency and to that extent, the Zimbabwean dollars that we have already received are not helpful in terms of getting imported pumps and other equipment that we need to do that work, so we expressed the need for US$40 million.”
He called for international support to supplement local efforts, citing ongoing engagements with diplomatic missions to mobilise emergency funds.
“I also briefed the Minister about the meetings that I have had recently for example the EU ambassador and what is needed to access emergency funds, this coming week I have meetings with the Swiss together with the British ambassador and will be raising the same thing to try mobilise international support for this crisis.”
