ZIMBABWE/ZAMBIA: Drought paralysing main industries

By Moyiga Nduru Reprint | | Print |

Moyiga Nduru and Joe Chilaizya

HARARE, Nov 25 1995 (IPS) - Acute water shortages threaten two of Southern Africa’s main industrial centres, the Zambian copperbelt city of Ndola and Bulawayo in neighboring Zimbabwe, with both being forced to introduce rationing.

In Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second largest city, industries have been allotted only three-quarters of their average water use. “This amount is not enough for running an industry,” said a spokesman at the Matabeleland Chamber of Industries.

The scarcity has forced at least one company, a towelling manufacturer, to relocate 50 percent of its operations across the border to Francistown, Botswana.

Only two firms, the meat processing Cold Storage Company and Bulawayo Abbatoirs have been exempted from the tight water restrictions.

The rest, including the leather, textile, food and beverage industries, the backbone of the city’s industrial sector, have been denied concessions by local authorities.

“The situation is serious but there is no panic yet,” said Eric Bloch, an economist and a leading water campaigner for the city, 430 kms southwest of the capital Harare, and its 600,000 population.

Similarly in Ndola, the heart of Zambia’s copper, textile and engineering industries, some firms have not had water supplies for the past three weeks. While there is talk of forced closures, others are considering moving out.

Zambia Telecommunications Limited (ZAMTEL), the country’s sole telecommunications company, confirmed to IPS that it was shifting its head office from Ndola to the capital Lusaka, 360 kms south.

Town clerk Emmanuel Chenda fears that ZAMTEL’s move may open the way for other companies to quit the city of about 800,000 people.

“We may witness the death of a city in the very near future if the situation persists,” he said.

The two cities are victims of a decade of poor rains which has affected the entire southern African region, whose rivers and dams are drying. While Ndola and Bulawayo are in difficulty now, cities in Botswana, Namibia and South Africa will face water shortages within 30 years, the U.N. Development Programme predicts.

ZIMBABWE/ZAMBIA: Drought paralysing main industries

By Moyiga Nduru Reprint | | Print |

Moyiga Nduru and Joe Chilaizya

HARARE, Nov 25 1995 (IPS) - Acute water shortages threaten two of Southern Africa’s main industrial centres, the Zambian copperbelt city of Ndola and Bulawayo in neighboring Zimbabwe, with both being forced to introduce rationing.
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