Angelah Nothando Mlotshwa
THE Bulawayo City Council has held a public consultative meeting on the future of the Bulawayo Power Station with residents.
The meeting explained the current situation in which the power station is in and what challenges are being faced.
The Acting Principal Engineer for Water Supply Dhumani Gwetu who presented the current status of the power station to stakeholders said that the power generating complex has dropped to produce 30 megawatts a day yet previously 120 megawatts were fed into the national grid.
“When the Power Station was designed it had a designed capacity of 120 mega watts and over time that capacity went down to about 90 mega watts due to old age and there are times where the station does not perform well and currently has been coming down , we are not sure if we are above 30 mega watts”, said Gwetu.
The shortage of power capacity generation is also affecting the manner in which water is being pumped in Bulawayo.He also stated that 120 mega litres is what Bulawayo needs per day but is currently producing 70 to 80 mega litres which is therefore leading to water woes worsening.
“The other issue is capacity. We as the City of Bulawayo, we don’t have the necessary expertise to run it. We as Bulawayo for Water treatment and plumbing requirements we need about 35mega watts. Talking of Ncema, Inyankuni abstraction and Umzingwane right now we are having this problem of water because of this”, added Gwetu.
Gwetu listed the options which the residents had to consider which are complete disposal of the Power Station, maintaining status quo with the ZESA, shareholding and total cancellation of current agreement with ZESA.
The Bulawayo United Residence Association Chairman Winos Dube and other stakeholders participants opted for the shareholding.
“I personally will have said let’s go for shareholding. Let us all benefit from this because total disposal for us as Bulawayo we will be standing to loose”, said Dube.
However, some of the residents opted for the cancellation of current agreement with ZESA.
Former Vice President Phekezela Mpoko in his contribution suggested that if the City Fathers are not happy with what ZESA or Zimbabwe Power Company are doing with the facility that is located along Lobengula street, they should opt for a new lessee.
By means of title deed the Bulawayo City Council owns the Bulawayo Power Station and various sub-stations that are being used by ZESA. The power station was established in 1947. In 1996 an agreement was reached that ZESA pays BCC a royalty using an agreed formula. In the initial stages of the agreement ZESA’ owned up until 2008 and then negated their obligations.