adminThe city council has been struggling to pump water to various suburbs in the city for many years.
Gweru’s supply dam, Gwenoro, which is supposed to have a total of nine pumps, has been operating with only two pumps for years.
Suburbs in high-lying areas like Mkoba Village 19, Daylsford and Senga have gone for close to 13 years without water.
In an interview yesterday, Clr Demo said the council resolved to introduce a water-rationing schedule in various suburbs including the central business district to allow water to flow to other high-lying areas.
“The council will soon come up with water rationing schedules for each suburb including the CBD to allow our pumping system to reach high-lying areas like Mkoba Village 19,” he said.
Clr Demo said the local authority had since repaired two more pumps at the city’s waterworks.
He pointed out that the city’s overall pumping capacity still remained at 44 percent.
“The council recently repaired two pumps at Gwenoro and there are now four pumps instead of a possible nine. This means the pumping system is still low at 44 percent. High-lying areas are still failing to access water,” he said.
Clr Demo said the high-lying areas were receiving water at night following repairs to two more pumps at Gwenoro.
“There has been, however, an improvement as residents in such areas like Senga and Mkoba 19 are now receiving water during the night when the rate of consumption would be low. We, however, intend to improve the situation by introducing the water rationing schedule which we will announce in due course,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mkoba 19 councillor, Clemence Kwaru was nearly assaulted by angry residents at the weekend during a ward meeting at Mpumelelo Primary School.
Sources who attended the meeting meant to end the impasse between council and residents over the payment of water bills said the deputy mayor saved Clr Kwaru’s day after he moved in and begged for calmness from residents who were accusing their councillor of failing to represent them.
“The council had called a meeting with Mkoba 19 residents with the intention to explain to them why they continued to receive service bills despite the fact that they had not been getting water for the past 13 years. The meeting was, however, disrupted for close to 30 minutes when angry residents mobbed Clr Kwaru and threatened to beat him up while accusing him of failing to represent them in council,” said the source.
The source said when some residents started poking Clr Kwaru’s face, the deputy mayor, who was part of the meeting, then moved in and begged them to cool down.
“The deputy mayor indicated to the residents that the council intended to introduce water-rationing so that all suburbs would receive water,” said the source.
Clr Kwaru could not be contacted for comment, as his mobile phone was not reachable.
Clr Demo, who confirmed the meeting with Mkoba 19 residents, however, downplayed the residents’ alleged threats to assault Clr Kwaru during the meeting and said their meeting was very “successful”.
“Those are lies because we had a very successful meeting with Mkoba 19 residents who have not been paying for services for years. We had a fruitful meeting and we urged them to pay up their bills while the council is coming up with measures to ensure that they start receiving water in their homes,” he said.
Online Reporter