| Bulawayo water situation to worsen |
 |
 |
 |
| Saturday, 05 January 2013 18:26 |
|
Vusumuzi Dube Municipal Correspondent BULAWAYO residents are set for a harsh year with revelations that the water situation in the city is likely to worsen with the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) already searching for alternative sources of water outside the Government initiated solutions. In an interview with Sunday News Bulawayo mayor, Councillor Thaba Moyo said there was no need to give residents false hope as the writing was on the wall that the water situation was not going to improve anytime soon. Clr Moyo said it was highly likely that water rationing and shedding would remain a permanent feature in the city, as the supply dams were not receiving significant inflows. “We have to look at this issue more broadly than we are currently doing, this is clearly a permanent crisis upon us and we must see that it is given the necessary focus because if we relax and wait for a solution to come to us, I tell you that we won’t be sincere as City Fathers. “As you might know we recently held a water summit where we resolved that we have to look at other ways to solve this crisis outside all those that have been suggested by Government,” said Clr Moyo. He said while the Government was still engrossed with completing the Mtshabezi-Umzingwane pipeline link project and the duplication of the Insiza pipeline, they would start developing their own solutions as the Government-initiated solutions were proving to be empty promises. “Right now we have agreed that the only way we can solve this issue is by harnessing our underground water, rather than looking far to get this water, in the coming year I will personally spearhead the drilling of more boreholes at the Nyamandlovu acquifer and also at Rochester. The truth is that we have to face this problem on our own because it is not a Government official based in Harare who suffers but it’s us who have to endure this water shortage on a daily basis,” said the mayor. Clr Moyo said they were tired of the excuses that were being made by the Minister of Water Resources, Management and Development Samuel Sipepa Nkomo over the Mtshabezi-Umzingwane project, thus their move to try to address the city’s water problems independently. “One thing that we are faced with is a 96-hour water shedding period that is likely to increase if we don’t get any significant rain, further on we honestly don’t see us cutting short this exercise because our water situation is critical, therefore, whether we like it or not we are in a crisis and thus have to ensure we come up with some form of solution before residents start condemning us,” he said. In the past, Minister Sipepa Nkomo has been attacked for failing the people of Matabeleland by dragging his feet and causing confusion in the implementation of water projects in the province. His ministry has been labelled the worst in Government. At one point the minister even proposed that BCC should consider recycling water from Khami Dam for domestic use, a suggestion that was vigorously thrown out by leaders from the regio |
People in Bulawayo must dialoque their grievances through action like what we are doing in masvingo .In masvingo , we do not let government tamper arrond our services .Water is an essential not a priviledge so people of bulawayo must be united and engage the government and clearly show the government that they we not pay bill until the water issues are resolved . Im reliably informed that since 1980 people in bulawayo did not have a reliable supply of water .The talk of the zambezi water project is nothing but a fallacy
ReplyDeletebut wat are then responsible authorities saying
ReplyDelete