Bulawayo’s water crisis may not ease in the short term because many of the boreholes being drilled by the government in and around the city are yielding no water.

Speaking to the Southern Eye, Bulawayo Provincial Affairs and Devolution secretary Paul Nyoni said the water table in the city has gone down and as a result, they have failed to reach their target for boreholes. Said Nyoni:

We have sunk boreholes in the city using the drilling rig from the government, but the main problem is that there is a high percentage of dry holes.

At most times, we will have a target to sink several boreholes, but because of the water table, we do not sink the desired number.

The Bulawayo metropolitan province received one drilling rig from the central government in 2023 to help ease the city’s water crisis which has seen the council cutting off water supplies for about 120 hours a week.

Nyoni revealed that besides a receding water table attributed to El Niño-induced drought, authorities are also facing the challenge of vandalism. He said:

We have been drilling boreholes mainly in institutions or if I can say parastatals that have enough security.

We have not been drilling in open spaces because there is a lot of vandalism going on hence the reason why many communities have not been noticing so much of our work.

Nyoni said the provincial leadership was expecting the central government to provide another drilling rig to ensure that residents of the country’s second-largest city have access to the precious liquid.

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