Bulawayo City Council pushes ahead with US$100 mil...

Bulawayo City Council pushes ahead with US$100 million Glass Block Dam project

Zim Now Writer

The Bulawayo City Council is moving forward with the construction of the US$100 million Glass Block Dam, also known as Bopoma Dam, to address the city’s water woes.

Mayor David Coltart announced that the council is meeting with potential investors this week to discuss the project’s feasibility report.

“This morning, the City of Bulawayo takes an important further step forward in securing our future water supplies.

“We (are meeting) with potential private partners regarding a feasibility report submitted to us concerning a new dam.

“(It’s) commonly known as Glass Block but which may well be referred to in future as Bopoma Dam,” he said.

The new dam is a critical component in the city’s medium-term plans to secure water supplies. With a capacity of 14 million cubic meters, it will add 70% more capacity to Bulawayo's water reserves. The construction of the dam, which will take 30 months to complete, will include a 41km pipeline connecting to the Lower Ncema Dam.

Bulawayo’s water woes have been a long-standing issue, with residents enduring prolonged water cuts, sometimes lasting over a week in some suburbs. The situation has been exacerbated by the vandalism of transformers and boreholes at Epping Forest and Nyamandlovu, reducing the pumping capacity from 20 ML to 4 ML a day. This has affected 60 000 residents who rely on water from the aquifer.

The city’s six supply dams - Inyankuni, Mtshabezi, Insiza, Lower Ncema, Umzingwane, and Upper Ncema - have been struggling to meet the demand for water. Insiza Dam was the last to be constructed in 1975, and the city’s largest dam, Inyankuni, was built in 1965 with a carrying capacity of 80 million cubic meters. Umzingwane was built in 1956, and Lower Ncema, the city’s oldest dam, was constructed in 1943.