Proposal to declare Byo water shortage area put on hold

Bulawayo, February 29, 2024 (New Ziana) – A proposal by the Bulawayo City Council to have the city declared a water shortage area has been shelved to allow the recently appointed water technical committee to access three water sources and ascertain on a scientific basis how much water was available, and inform government.

Council has been pushing the government to declare the city a water disaster area, a step which would free the city to approach donors to fund its short-term plans to keep the taps running.

Speaking after meeting the 20-member water technical committee, Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement Minister Anxious Masuka said there was need to ascertain, scientifically, how much water was available in current Bulawayo sources, namely Insiza, Inyankhuni and Mtshabezi before making the declaration.

“This is not (the) people`s wish to have a crisis declared. This is a factual scientific approach. Water storage and the dams are known and their capacities are known. The conveyance is known,” he said. “So, we need to get factual information regarding what quantities of water we have, evaporation that is likely to take place and conveyancing and we want to know whether we have enough water to last us until the next season,” he added.

The Bulawayo city council recently introduced a tight 120-hour water shedding owing to the low levels of water in the city’s supply dams.

The current water-shedding regime in Bulawayo is likely to be prolonged due to a number of challenges, chief among them persistent droughts in the region and vandalism of infrastructure at water works areas.

The city relies on six supply dams, Insiza, Inyankuni, Lower Ncema, Upper Ncema, Umzingwane, and Mtshabezi which are all located in Matabeleland South province.

City mayor, David Coltart said he was looking forward to the committee urgently furnishing relevant authorities with their scientific information on how long the existing water supply will last.

“The minister has listened closely to our request and he has directed the technical committee to look into three sources of water namely Insiza, Inyankhuni and Mutshabezi to ascertain on a scientific basis how much water is there and how long it will last and inform the minister and government regarding the declaration of water shortage area.

“We look forward to the committee reporting urgently with their technical scientific information so that we know with accuracy how long our existing water supplies will work,” Coltart said.

Minister of State and Devolution for Bulawayo Metropolitan province, Judith Ncube said the report of by the technical committee had been approved and adopted, and implored urgent implementation of some of its recommendations.

“We approved and adopted their report. We are all in agreement that the way forward should be identified and we need to implement some of the recommendations,” she said.

To permanently solve water challenges in the Matebeleland region, government using local funding, is spearheading the construction of the 650 million cubic meter Lake Gwayi Shangani in Hwange district.