The great defect of Bulawayo is the smallness of the water supply and
the badness of it. At present the inhabitants depend on wells, and
water is easily obtainable at 30 and 40 feet, but the water is of a hard
and indifferent quality. Up on the Maatschesmuslopje stream, about two
and a half miles from the town, there have been constructed three dams
of different lengths and varying heights. Number 1 dam is the nearest
to Bulawayo, and has a solid stone and cement core starting from the
bedrock 10 feet wide, and decreasing by set-backs of 6 inches to a width
of 2 feet at the top. Number 2 dam has a puddled core of clay faced
with stone, and Number 3 is of similar construction. In April last
these dams were full and overflowing, but unfortunately, through bad
construction and want of care, there were several leaks, and it is now
decided to demolish two of the dams and rebuild them. Numbers 2 and 3
are quite fit to retain the water catchment, and Number 1 will be
finished by the end of the year. The estimated storage of water by the
three dams is calculated to be between 40 and 45 million gallons. A
fourth dam, about to be erected, will, it is thought, considerably
increase the storage.
Several critics are of the opinion that the dams will not retain any
water, though they were full last April.
We have had four copious showers of rain since our arrival on the 4th
inst, but a few hours later the spruits, gullies, and watercourses were
almost waterless, the streets showing scarcely a trace of the rain, so
porous and thirsty is the soil. Daily it becomes apparent to me that
the inhabitants of Bulawayo should lose no time in studying the art of
water conservation. In a country just within the tropics an abundant
supply of water is essential, and thirty gallons per head per day would
not be excessive. Ten thousand inhabitants should be able to command
300,000 gallons daily, but Bulawayo within twenty years will have
probably 20,000, and there is no river between here and Khama's country
that could supply 600,000 gallons daily. Numbers of little watersheds
may be drained into reservoirs, but if I were a citizen of Bulawayo my
anxiety would be mainly on the subject of water. The water question is
not at all an insoluble one, because, for the matter of that, Bulawayo
will have always the Zambesi tributaries to fall back upon, especially
the Guay River.