Statement by his worship, S Mguni the Mayor on the City of Bulawayo water situation presented after the Special Council Meeting held on Friday, 5 February 2021.

The City of Bulawayo is grateful to the Almighty God for the rains that have been received in our supply Dams since the start of the rain season. The Dam levels have risen by at least 30% from an overall percentage of 20% in November 2020 to 53% as at Friday, 5 February 2021. Council today (5/2/2021) met and resolved for the progressive rolling out of the water restoration strategy against the available raw water and available pumping capacities so as to slowly introduce a programmable water shedding regime which will be gradually suspended towards mid-March 2021.

It will be recalled that in the year 2020, the City of Bulawayo installed new Flowserve pumps to replace the obsolete KSB Pumps at both Fernhill and Ncema Pump Stations. The pumps were initially earmarked for technical commissioning in December 2020, but due to challenges faced with the failure of the Non-Return Valves, the commissioning was rescheduled for January 2021. Council would like to advise that the progressive recommissioning of the Flowserve pumps is being done from the 25th of January 2021 with the final snags expected to be completed by March 2021.

The additional pumping through the Flowserve pumps is expected to increase the treatment capacity from the current 92ML/ day to 145 ML/ day. This will assist in building the raw water reservoir and ensure its gradual restoration to the water supply system. The City had thus proposed a formal 144 hour water shedding programme which will be gradually normalised to ensure water twice a week.

It is anticipated that from the third week of February 2021 onwards the reservoirs will have stabilized enough to make way for a formal 72 hours shedding programme. This delivery capacity will remain the same up to the 16th of March 2021 when the second set of the

Flowserve pumps are introduced and become operational.

Council has agreed on the following Water Supply Restoration Strategy Outline:

Action	Description	Date	Influencing Factor	SIV	Projected Average Consumption	Corresponding Shedding programme
1	Coming on of the first Flow Serve Pumps	8/02/2021	Successful commissioning of the first set of the Flowserve Pumps	145ML/ day	110ML/day	144 hour
2	Increasing pumping time to 24hrs/ day of the first set of Flow Serve Pumps	15/02/2021	Successful completion of training of operatives.	145ML/ day	125ML/day	72 hour
3	Coming on board of the second set of the Flow Serve Pumps	15/03/2021	Successful commissioning of the first set of the Flow Serve pumps	161ML/day	135ML/day	48 Hour to suspending shedding
4	The 48 hour shedding programme will be suspended by end of March making way for a fully charged system to supply water to the City 24 hours per day. This us dependent on the consumer adhering to the water rationing limits.

The City of Bulawayo also notes the following immediate actions to ensure continuous water supply;

1. Finalisation of the rehabilitation of the 2nd Sulzer Pump to ensure standby capacity.
2. Completion and commissioning of the Epping Forest which is anticipated to supply an additional water supply of 10ML/day.
3. Ensuring adherence to the water rationing regime currently in place.
4. Implementation of the Inyankuni Booster Station increasing output from 18ML/day to 41ML/day at a cost of USD$0.4 million.
5. Increasing of Mtshabezi abstraction from 15ML/day to 36ML/day at a cost of USD$2.3 million.

We thank our stakeholders for their continued support.

COUNCILLOR SOLOMON MGUNI

MAYOR