MINING activities upstream of Sebakwe River are reportedly contaminating water, making it difficult for Kwekwe City Council to effectively purify it.
Sebakwe supplies Kwekwe and Redcliff towns and lately residents have been experiencing intermittent water shortages due to turbidity.
The local authority, instead of supplying citizens with unclean water, chooses to cut supply until the turbidity settles or when the water is safe for drinking.
Speaking during a full council meeting recently, Works Director Eng John Mhike said since the rains have subsided, the water remained with a lot of turbidity which requires more than normal chemicals to clean.
He said suspicion was that there were illegal miners upstream of Sebakwe who were contaminating the water.
illegal mining
“We are going to send a team to investigate what exactly is going on. But we strongly suspect that there are mining activities that are taking place and possibly contaminating the water,” said Eng Mhike.
He said the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) was conducting the investigations and would furnish the local authority with results. Meanwhile, last week, residents went for close to two days without water after the local authority stopped supply because council ran out of purification chemicals.
“Water chemicals namely aluminium sulphate ran out at the waterworks before arrival of the next consignment from Chemplex Marketing because of production challenges at their plant. The consignment is now on its way from Harare to Kwekwe. As a result, we stopped pumping water to the city at 4.30pm. We will resume production and pumping as soon as the chemicals arrive. Any inconvenience caused is sincerely regretted,” read communication
from council.
In another statement, the local authority said the continued erratic water supply was due to
poor raw water quality which is being abstracted from Dutchman’s pool for purification.
“The raw water that we are currently treating is very turbid with a high concentration of light sediments which are proving very difficult to settle during the water treatment process. In order to control the sludge levels during the water treatment and prevent choking of treatment process, we are being forced to operate intermittently with frequent start-stops,” read the statement.
Muddy water
The local authority has implemented a raft of measures including engaging Zinwa to flush
muddy water that has collected in the dam. Council is also procuring more treatment chemicals that can assist in managing the raw water situation.
“Other efforts are underway to bring a lasting solution to the current challenges and we are kindly appealing to all water users and consumers to use water responsibly until normal water supply is restored,” read the statement.
Kwekwe is one of the best water authorities in Zimbabwe with a reputation of uninterrupted water supply as long as there are no faults.