Hwange residents go six years without water

Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Reporter
NGUMIJA suburb in Hwange, which is home to National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) employees and those that are renting has gone for more than six years without water while electricity was switched off in November last year.

Residents said no reason was given for switching off the power but NRZ acting spokesperson Mr Martin Banda said the parastatal owed Zesa almost $20 million.

He blamed this on the bulk metering system which he said has since been stopped.

The suburb is also home to St George’s Primary School.

“We have been without running water for more than six years now and life has become very difficult for families,” said Ms Juliet Ndlovu.

She said residents were now relying on borehole water after World Vision and the Catholic Church which runs St George’s Primary School drilled boreholes which are solar powered to provide water to residents and pupils.

Ngumija and the nearby Raylton suburb have more than 5 000 residents benefiting from the boreholes.

The residents said they now have to wake up early in the morning every day to fetch water yet they continue to pay rentals to NRZ.

They said each household is paying $25 000 rent a month and NRZ is supposed to provide services.

“We wonder why we are being made to pay rentals when we are not getting the services from NRZ.

The situation is now worse without electricity which was switched off in November last year. We are using the bush to relieve ourselves thereby putting our lives at risk of contracting water-borne diseases like typhoid and diarrhoea. This situation should be addressed urgently, we cannot continue living under such conditions,” said another resident Ms Morren Nekatambe.

Ward 13 Councillor, Mr Albert Sibanda said there is an urgent need to address the residents’ plight given that they are paying rentals to NRZ which is supposed to provide the required services.

“Hwange Colliery Company used to supply us with water but we don’t know what happened. The situation is really bad and residents are suffering. We had to engage other partners like World Vision to assist by drilling boreholes,” said Cllr Sibanda.

He said the lack of electricity has become unbearable.

“Power lines are passing over us but we have no electricity. Can you imagine living in a house without water and electricity yet people are paying rentals. As a local leader, I am always having residents coming to me asking when the situation is likely to be addressed but I have no answers,” said Cllr Sibanda.

The suburb is home to NRZ employees, former workers and individuals that bought houses in the suburb.

Mr Banda said: “NRZ has been saddled by huge bills on utilities mainly due to the non-separation of bills among private tenants, NRZ employees and NRZ operations buildings. In order to reduce utility bills, NRZ embarked on separation of bills to ensure each household has its own meter and the first area targeted was Raylton and Ngumija houses in Hwange where NRZ received two bills of $33 million and $20 million in a space of three months. These bills were not sustainable for the organisation and were contributing to the loss position of the company.”

He said most occupants were benefiting from the non-separation of bills as they were leasing pieces of land inclusive of electricity costs to private tenants who were engaged in business activities like welding and the bills were passed on to NRZ.

“NRZ thus met a lot of resistance when it decided to separate the bills and this delayed the implementation of the programme.

The programme was however, successfully completed and handed over to Zimbabwe Electricity Distribution Company while the programme to separate water bills is ongoing,” said Mr Banda.

He said individuals now have to apply to Zesa for electricity connection as NRZ was no longer responsible for the supply of electricity.

“Individuals are free to approach Zesa revenue offices to apply for connection upon payment of pre-paid meters and connection fees.

“The same process is being done by NRZ for its remaining properties which require electricity,” said Mr Banda.