Bulawayo City Council to create corporatised utility to address water challenges

THE Bulawayo City Council (BCC) has proposed establishing a Private Limited Corporate Organisation to leverage external financing opportunities with US$17 million earmarked to enhance the water infrastructure.

This initiative aims to address the city’s long-standing water infrastructure challenges. The collaboration with Veolia Environment Institute (VEI) and other partners is expected to bring expertise and resources to support the city’s goals.

According to recent council minutes, Bulawayo’s director for Engineering Services, Engineer Sikhumbuzo Ncube, highlighted that the proposed migration budget will aid in fundraising and achieving the city’s objectives.

He recommended appointing a transition manager before June 2024 to kick-start the transformation process.

“We have proposed to establish a Private Limited Corporate Organisation to leverage external financing opportunities and approved a US$17 million migration budget to improve the water infrastructure backlog”.

“We want to establish a corporatised utility wholly-owned by the council with safeguards against shareholder dilution,” he said.

Plans include developing a detailed roadmap and Terms of Reference (ToR) for the transition, benchmarking visits, resource identification for the turnaround budget and setting up a technical team to collaborate with the Change Manager on a stakeholder communication plan to manage change effectively.

“We are going to facilitate benchmarking visits to learn from successful water utilities, approve and identify resources for the turnaround budget”.

“The envisioned changes aim to foster innovation, customer care and efficiency within the utility and are expect to enhance service delivery, ensure financial sustainability and investor appeal for the city.”

Bulawayo is facing water shortage due to low water levels at the city’s supply dams and ageing infrastructure.

Years of neglect, insufficient maintenance and upgrades have plagued Bulawayo’s water infrastructure.

Residents are reeling under a 120-hour water-shedding schedule adopted in February due to depleting water levels of the city’s supply dams.

Since the start of the year, several suburbs have endured prolonged periods of water cuts, some exceeding a week, with the situation deteriorating further in recent weeks leading to the council failing to maintain the 120-hour water shedding schedule.

Urbanisation growth, recurring droughts and economic constraints have worsened the situation, leading to water shortages worsened by frequent pipe bursts and at times residents have been forced to drink contaminated water.

Government has said addressing Bulawayo’s water woes is a top priority and the long-term solution is the completion of the Lake Gwayi-Shangani under construction.

The city is providing water only twice per week as part of measures to conserve the little water left. -chronicle