Bulawayo Set To Run Dry
Bulawayo, January 17, 2012- Bulawayo residents face another round of water
shortages as the local authority is going to decommission one of its five
supply dams, Umzingwane, next month due to low water levels.
Two more dams, Upper Ncema and Inyankuni will be decommissioned in the
coming months unless significant rain is received urgently as they are less
than 30% full – at 17% and 21.3% full respectively.
“Umzingwane Dam is currently at 12.03% and being the one with the lowest
inflow, it is most likely to be decommissioned in mid February if there are
no significant inflows,” according to latest Bulawayo City Council report on
the water situation in the city.
If the three dams are decommissioned, Bulawayo whose population continues to
increase will be left with Lower Ncema and Insiza which are presently at 56%
and 87.2% full respectively.
Bulawayo has faced perennial water problems since independence during which
both residents and the city fathers have pinned their hopes on an ambitious
project to draw water from the Zambezi River.
The Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project, a long held plan to tap water from
the Zambezi River through the construction of a 450km pipeline to arid
Matabeleland, was mooted way back in 1912.
Costs have since ballooned to about US$600 million, way beyond what the
cash-strapped Zimbabwe government can afford.
At one time in a bid to alleviate water shortages government planned to pump
water from the heavily polluted Khami dam that was decommissioned in 1998
because of high levels of sewage and industrial waste to the city.
The move was however resisted by residents, health experts and the local
authority.