During the 1992 drought, the city council drilled 55 boreholes at the Nyamandlovu Aquifer and 355 boreholes in the city. Out of the 55 boreholes at the Aquifer, only 17 boreholes are functioning. They produce about 30 000 cubic meters of water per day.
The Minister of Water Resources Development and Management, Samuel Sipepa Nkomo, told a water crisis meeting on Friday that some donors had agreed to fund a project which would increase the pumping of water at the Aquifer from 5 000 to about 30 000 cubic metres per day.
“The most immediate solution to our current water crisis is to increase the pumping of water from the Aquifer,” said Nkomo. adding that donors had also agreed to construct an extra reservoir at either Nyamandlovu or Cowdray Park.
The city council has been hit by a critical water shortage, forcing it to introduce a 48-hour weekly water shedding schedule in July. This was increased to 72 hours last week. Two of the city’s five dams, Upper Ncema and Umzingwane, have
already been decommissioned and it is looking more likely that Lower Ncema and Inyankuni will suffer the same fate.
Post published in: News