adminNyemudzai Kakore Herald Reporter
Some Harare residents were forced to endure a dry festive season, with no water for more than a week and drops only starting trickling from taps in some parts of the city at the weekend.The situation was worse in Kuwadzana Extension but had slightly improved in the Avenues and Cranborne.
The residents said they would not forgive the city council for making their Christmas miserable as they spent time looking for water in shallow wells and at the few boreholes in the area instead of merry-making.
The water shortage comes at a time when the Government is anticipating an increase in cases of diarrhoeal diseases during the rainy season and has set up a national emergency preparedness centre. “We have now gone for over a week without tap water and this situation has driven us to resort to unprotected wells which are a health hazard,” said Mrs Shelter Ruzvidzo, who was standing in a long queue at a borehole at Kuwadzana 8 Primary School.
“I could not celebrate Christmas as l spent most of my day looking for water. ”
Mr Takura Rukato of the Avenues said they had a torrid time during the festive season without tap water.
Some Avenues residents said they were now carrying water from their workplaces in tins and plastic containers. The situation was the same in Cranborne where residents were fetching water for domestic use from the nearby Mukuvisi River.
Council spokesperson Mr Leslie Gwindi said they were attending to the water problems in the Avenues and Kuwadzana Extension.
“The Avenues area started accessing water on Friday afternoon,” he said. “Our water engineers have attended to the burst pipe that was affecting water delivery.
Mr Gwindi said Kuwadzana Extension was affected by technical problems.
“There was a technical problem at the reservoirs,” he said. “The problem has been attended to.”
Harare has been faced with a perennial water shortage, with some suburbs such as Tafara and Mabvuku now known for being permanently dry.
Efforts are, however, being made to rehabilitate the city’s water works using a US$144 million loan facility recently obtained from China, with engineers from that country already working on Morton Jaffray Water Works.
The council still needs more funds to rehabilitate water pipes that have been affected by old age and constantly burst.
Online Reporter