ne
that
the government’s Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) is pushing
to
reclaim water from Khami dam that was decommissioned in 1998 because of
high
levels of sewage and industrial waste. Bulawayo Executive Mayor Japhet
Ndabeni-Ncube on Tuesday said the quality of water from Khami dam was
seriously compromised adding that ZINWA would have to “really clean”
the
water before it could be pumped to residents. “The council stopped
drawing
water from Khami Dam because it is very impure and we cannot compromise
on
water quality. Since it is ZINWA’s responsibility to bring bulk water
to
cities, then they have to really treat that water if they intend
pursuing
the plan. It (treatment) has to be done very well,” said Ndabeni-Ncube.
Bulawayo, which lies in the dry and arid southern Matabeleland region,
is
facing serious water shortages with residents sometimes going for more
than
a week without supplies. ZINWA catchment manager for the southern
region,
Matson Chidakwa, said there was nothing wrong in drawing water from
Khami
dam as it would be treated before it is supplied to residents. Chidakwa
said
water from Khami dam was in fact cleaner than that from Lake Chivero
that
supplies the bulk of Harare’s water. “Khami water is cleaner than that
of
Lake Chivero. We have the funds for the treatment of that water,”
Chidakwa
said. Chidakwa said ZINWA was only waiting for the go-ahead from the
Bulawayo council before starting pumping water from Khami dam. The dam
would
supply Bulawayo with between 7 000 and 10 000 cubic meters of water a
day
and help alleviate a water crisis that has worsened over the past few
months. Bulawayo has faced perennial water problems for more than two
decades during which both residents and the city fathers have pinned
their
hopes on an ambitious project to draw water from the Zambezi River. The
Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project, a long held plan to tap water from
the
Zambezi River through the construction of a 450km pipeline to arid
Matabeleland, was mooted way back in 1912. Costs have since ballooned
to
about US$600 million, way beyond what the cash-strapped Zimbabwe
government
can afford. – Zimonline