Bulawayo, Zimbabwe: The Government of Zimbabwe has granted $7 billion and a borehole drilling rig for Bulawayo as part of short to medium-term interventions to address the water shortages of the city by extending the Lake Gwayi-Shangani project, which will start pumping the water next year.
The $7 billion will be channelled to repair broken boreholes at the Nyamandlovu Aquifer.
It ensures the pumping of 16 megalitres of water per day at full throttle and the rehabilitation of critical pump stations and pipelines.
The Lake Gwayi-Shangani dam is a long-term solution to the water problems of Bulawayo.
The Minister of Water and Rural Development – Dr Anxious Masuka, dwelled on the commitment of the government to restore basic services such as water and sanitation in Bulawayo.
The minister restored the commitment while addressing an inaugural meeting of 20 member Bulawayo Water Technical Committee at Mhlahlandlela Government Complex.
He mentioned that the above interventions were part of Vision 2030 and envisaged creating an upper-middle-income economy.
The minister added that the Government has provided $6.9 billion to the project and to the drilling rig. This money will be allocated according to this committee working closely with everyone.
He said that they needed to assist the Bulawayo City Council by putting together a committee that has a very broad representation with skills and depth and requires experience to accelerate the initiatives at the Bulawayo council level.
In the meeting, he revealed that the process of tendering the two-state treatment works. The first is 80 megalitres per day treatment work at Cowdray Park is complete.
Notably, all the water to the city comes from there. “The 220 megalitres a day that we will be conveyancing from Gwayi-Shangani is enough to guarantee water for Bulawayo for the upcoming 80 years,” said Masuka.
Masuka shared that this is the reason why, at this stage, they do not go beyond Lake Gwayi-Shangani in terms of water supply for Bulawayo.
Reportedly, they will stabilize it and then deal with internal issues within Bulawayo, which ensures the non-revenue water is reduced and that the conveyancing of water is reaching areas that we were unable to reach.
Minister Anxious Masuka mentioned that in Cowdray Park, there are 25,000 residents who are not able to get water.