Chronicle Editor
Blessing Karubwa, Chronicle reporter
PUMULA East residents in Bulawayo are capitalising on a burst pipe to get potable water while others are selling the precious liquid to people who are building.
Ms Magred Matshatsha, (78), said the area had become waterlogged.
“Since 1979, I have been here and the pipe which recently burst is just too old,” she said.
In a statement on Friday, Bulawayo City Council corporate communications manager Mrs Nesisa Mpofu said the local authority visited the area and has taken temporary measures to reduce the water loss while mobilising resources to permanently fix the leak.
“At the present moment, we have put in temporary stop-gap measures to reduce serious water loss while mobilising the necessary resources to attend to the fault,” said Mrs Mpofu.
She said vandals broke the pipe.
“The City of Bulawayo would like to urge residents to desist from vandalising municipal infrastructure as this negatively impacts on service delivery and also increases the maintenance budget for the local authority,” said Mrs Mpofu.
Two men who preferred anonymity were collecting water into drums that were at the back of a pick-up truck.
They said they sold the water to people who are building.
“There is no cost in doing this because we are only losing less than $100 for transport and we sell these drums to people building houses,” they said but declined to reveal how much they sold a drum for.
The two men said they have also ventured into agriculture using water from the burst pipe.
“We are also watering our gardens using the water that we are fetching from this place,” one of them said. -@karubwa
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