Maputo is also running out of water

CAPE Town is not the only major southern African city at risk of running out of water: the Mozambican government has announced severe restrictions on water supply in the Greater Maputo Metropolitan Area to prevent the main reservoir supplying Maputo from running dry.

On Tuesday, the government’s Disaster Management Technical Council (CTGC) declared an “orange alert” in the drought-stricken Umbeluzi Basin, the source of Maputo’s water. This is the second highest form of disaster preparedness.

Maputo, the neighbouring city of Matola and the town of Boane depend for their water on the reservoir behind the Pequenos Libombos dam on the Umbeluzi river. The Umbeluzi flows out of the dam to a treatment and pumping station a few kilometres downstream which sends clean water to the distribution centres in Greater Maputo, supplying about 1.3 million people.

Water supply from the treatment and pumping station on the Umbeluzi has already been reduced by 20%. As from Thursday, the restrictions could be as much as 40%.

The calculation made on 2 February was that the Pequenos Libombos reservoir held 76.15 million cubic metres of water. This may sound a lot, but it is only 19.8% of the reservoir’s storage capacity.

Over the past three and a half years the reservoir has shrunk alarmingly.

In October 2014, it was 81% full, but by the end of December 2017 it had fallen to 20%.

The CTGC has ordered a reduction in discharges from the Pequenos Libombos dam from 2.15 cubic metres a second to just 1.5 cubic metres a second. This is to ensure continuity of supply, albeit on a reduced scale, to Greater Maputo, and to avoid the danger of the reservoir drying up completely.

For the past year, there has been a ban on the use of Umbeluzi water for irrigation, which has been a serious blow to commercial agriculture, particularly banana plantations, in the Umbeluzi Valley.

The amount of water pumped to Maputo, Matola and Boane had already been cut by 20%, but as from Thursday, the cut in supply will be far deeper, up to 40%.

The CTGC noted that the weather forecast for the rest of the rainy season (February and March) is for normal rainfall, with a trend to be below normal. Thus the rainy season might end without a significant improvement in the level of the Pequenos Libombos reservoir.

The restrictions are intended, the CTGC says, “to ensure minimum quantities of water for human consumption in Maputo, Matola and Boane until the next rainy season”.

Attempts will also be made to identify or build other sources of water for Greater Maputo. Possibilities mentioned in the past have been tapping into aquifers north of Maputo and bringing water from the Corumana dam, on the Sabie river, either of which would require heavy investment in new pipelines and other infrastructure. – Independent Foreign Service