THE heavy rains that pounded the country in the past few weeks have seen Gweru’s main water supply dam Gwenoro recording significant inflows now holds 45% of its capacity up from 0%.
STEPHEN CHADENGA OWN CORRESPONDENT
Gweru assistant town clerk Tapiwa Marerwa said despite the rains received so far, the city’s water levels remained a cause for concern and urged residents to continue using water sparingly.
Marerwa said the 45% capacity in Gwenoro meant the city would go to the next season with less than half capacity.
“As of now, Gwenoro dam is at 45% capacity while Amapongokwe is 50 % full. Whitewaters Dam, which contributes little to the city’s water requirements, is at 100 % capacity,” said Marerwa.
“But we are saying let us continue with the spirit of water rationing because such figures show that our dams remain critical.”
The Gweru City Council introduced water shedding from February 1 whereby households in both the city’s low and high density suburbs receive 500 litres of water per day. Marerwa also said council could not rule out siltation as one of the contributing factors of the dams having low water volumes.
Marerwa said council did not have the capacity to de-silt the dams as the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) was currently operating with only two dredging machines.
