The Bulawayo City Council (BCC) will slowly introduce a programmable water-shedding regime which will be gradually suspended towards mid-March 2021 following improved water levels in the city’s supply dams.
In a statement issued after a special council meeting held today, Friday, 5 February 2021, the mayor of Bulawayo, His Worship Solomon Mguni revealed that dam levels have risen by at least 30% from an overall percentage of 20% in November 2020 to 53%.
Cllr Mguni said the Council today resolved for a gradual water restoration strategy which will depend on the available raw water and available pumping capacities. Mguni said:
Council today (5/2/2021) met and resolved for the progressive rolling out of the water restoration strategy against the available raw water and available pumping capacities so as to slowly introduce a programmable water-shedding regime which will be gradually suspended towards mid-March 2021.
It will be recalled that in the year 2020, the City of Bulawayo installed new Flowserve pumps to replace the obsolete KSB Pumps at both Fernhill and Ncema Pump Stations.
The pumps were initially earmarked for technical commissioning in December 2020, but due to challenges faced with the failure of the Non-Return Valves, the commissioning was rescheduled for January 2021.
Council would like to advise that the progressive recommissioning of the Flowserve pumps is being done from the 25th of January 2021 with the final snags expected to be completed by March 2021.
The additional pumping through the Flowserve pumps is expected to increase the treatment capacity from the current 92ML/ day to 145 ML/ day.
This will assist in building the raw water reservoir and ensure its gradual restoration to the water supply system. The City had thus proposed a formal 144-hour water-shedding programme which will be gradually normalised to ensure water twice a week.
It is anticipated that from the third week of February 2021 onwards the reservoirs will have stabilized enough to make way for a formal 72 hours shedding programme.
This delivery capacity will remain the same up to the 16th of March 2021 when the second set of the Flowserve pumps are introduced and become operational.