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following a shut down at the city’s Range Booster Station to fix a pump valve among other repairs.
Some companies and parastatals were forced to close business in the afternoon with other businesses like food outlets resorting to buying borehole water.
By the end of business yesterday the supplies had not been restored.
“We only opened for business up to 12 noon today and later closed as the situation was so dire at our offices. We serve members of the public and we could not continue with our operations without water in our toilets,” said an official at the Old Prison Complex, which houses different Government departments.
A survey conducted by Chronicle in the Gweru central business district revealed that most food outlets were relying on hiring pushcart crews to supply them with borehole water.
“We have hired a pushcart in order to remain in business because we rely on water. We cannot explain to our clients that we could not prepare food for them because there is no water in Gweru,” said Mrs Lillian Ndlovu who runs a food outlet between Lobengula Avenue and 5th Street.
Mrs Ndlovu attacked the council for failing to address the water challenges that continue to haunt the city.
“We have been experiencing water challenges in Gweru for long and we don’t know why it is taking ages for the city fathers to address this problem once and for all,” she said.
In a statement, the Town Clerk, Mr Daniel Matawu, said the water problem was due to a “total shutdown at the Range Booster Station”.
“The Gweru City Council will shut down the Range Booster Station to carry out the following work, replace delivery valve on Pumpset No 2 at Range Booster, to install a new metering system and to replace a leaking joint on the 600m diameter pipeline,” read part of Mr Matawu’s statement.
According to Gweru City Council engineers, the city has been relying on only two pumps out of a possible six to pump water to the entire city.
Some sections, which lie on high ground like Senga and Mkoba Village 19, have gone for nearly six years receiving erratic supplies.
The situation has been made worse after the city boreholes, which were set up to augment the city’s water, have since broken down.
Gweru Mayor Councillor Tedius Chimombe recently said the city council contracted a local company to repair the broken down boreholes as the city fathers battled to provide a back up to the city’s water supply system.
Online Reporter