Bulawayo City Council on Tuesday approved a long-awaited $42 million water reticulation upgrade that will replace decades-old asbestos cement pipes serving the western suburbs. The project, partly funded by the African Development Bank, is expected to begin next quarter and run for three years.
Town Clerk’s office confirmed the upgrade will benefit roughly 380,000 residents in Pumula, Nkulumane, Magwegwe and Lobengula. Engineers have long argued that pipe failure, not Lake Mtshabezi’s volume, is the city’s true bottleneck. “You can pump as much as you like — if the pipes are leaking 40 percent of it back into the ground, it never reaches the kitchen tap,” said one official briefed on the plan.
Residents welcomed the news with cautious optimism. “We have heard these promises before,” said Gogo Sithembile, a retired teacher from Pelandaba. “But if it works, our grandchildren may finally know what it is to open a tap in the morning.”
The council also indicated that smart meters will be rolled out alongside the new pipes to detect leaks in real time. Implementation will be phased, starting with Pumula South in March.
on June 10, 2026
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