BY NIZBERT MOYO Bulawayo mayor, Solomon Mguni has urged residents to strike a balance between their agricultural activities and home use of the water they fetch from boreholes. Mguni told Southern Eye on Friday that residents should use water sparingly in view of water shortages that have bedevilled the city. Bulawayo is currently under a 144 hours water-shedding schedule which sees residents getting water once per week. This was after the local authority decommissioned three of its six supply dams due to dwindled water levels. “We always urge residents to use water sparingly and have a balance between their agricultural activities and home use in view of the fact that we are experiencing one of the worst water shortage periods in the history of the city,” Mguni said. Ward 26, Emganwini borehole water chairman, Kington Tshuma said they had constructed a water reservoir to store water. He encouraged the local authority to provide more land for community gardens, adding that these had become a source of livelihoods. “We encourage the council to provide more land for community gardens so that we all benefit since these are now our source of income,” Tshuma said, adding that the local authority should consider drilling more boreholes as a stopgap measure to the water crisis bedevilling the city.
