THE WATER situation in the Midlands capital, Gweru is headed for collapse if no immedidate plans are put in place for an alternative source other than the main supplier, Gwenoro dam, a council source revealed to The Southern Eye yesterday. Stephen Chadenga OWN CORRESPONDENT
The source said while residents were going about their usual business, city fathers were having headaches on how to handle the water situation.
Gwenoro Dam is to be decommissioned by Monday next week as per council resolution.
“It’s is quite serious, you can imagine and with expectations high that Gwenoro Dam has to decommisssioned by the end of this month, the big question facing city fathers is how to handle the situation,” a council source said in confidentiality.
The source further revealed that the situation could be worsened by the bickering from the MDC-T party on the way councillors elected the new mayor for the city.
“Right now the new mayor and his team of councillors should be working in prioritising this issue of water in the event that Gwenoro Dam is decommissioned, but a lot of energy is being wasted on defending who should have been or not been at the helm of the city as mayor,” the source said.
MDC-T councillors last week defied the party’s preferred candidate, Charles Chikozho and elected Hamutendi Kombayi as mayor.
Since then there have been accusations and counter-accusations among party members through the media.
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Recently city engineer Jones Nathambwe was qouted saying Gwenoro had to be decommissioned since the dam had literally run dry.
“We will be decommissioning the dam (Gwenoro) soon as the capacity there is only 2%,” he said.
Though the city could turn to other dams Amapongokwe and Whitewaters, investigations by this paper revealed that no proper equipment had been installed at the two dams to meet the city’s water needs through inceased pumping capacity.
Contacted for comment on the situation at Gwenoro, town clerk Daniel Matawu said the right people to talk to were the city engineers.
“Talk to the city engineers,” he said. City deputy engineer Praymore Mhlanga said his boss, Nathambwe, was the one on the ground in the decommissioning of Gwenoro and related developments.
Nathambwe however, refused to comment when called on his mobile saying he was on leave.
“Why do you go about hunting for my mobile? I am on leave and can only talk to you about council affairs at council,” he said before hanging up.
