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Vusumuzi Dube, Senior Municipal Reporter
BULAWAYO residents under the banner of the Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA) have threatened to take legal action against the Bulawayo City Council if council fails to effectively address the problem of contaminated water that has hit some suburbs in the city.
Last week three children reportedly died from diarrhoea complications with their families alleging that it was linked to dirty and unsafe water pumped by the city council.
The local authority responded by exempting the affected area from the 144-hour water shedding schedule with council officials routinely taking water samples from the area for quality control testing.
Council officials further laid part of the blame on the residents who they accused of collecting water from illegal open wells, dug along sewer lines then failing to disinfect their containers when collecting council water thereby leading to the contamination.
In a statement, BPRA coordinator, Mr Emmanuel Ndlovu accused the local authority of politicking with people’s lives instead of working on a permanent solution to the problem.
He noted that as residents they had previously warned on this pending crisis but the local authority did not heed to their warnings.
“It is the wrong time to be politicking when people’s lives are being lost and there is empirical evidence of contaminated water flowing from the taps. It is the position of BPRA that the deaths were avoidable and the local authority should have taken better preventive measures.
“We implore Government and BCC to urgently trace the source of contamination, BCC must take responsibility for the deaths and to account for the loss of lives, and assist bereaved families. We demand answers and immediate action to prevent further tragedy. If BCC does not act on the above, BPRA shall be forced to take legal action against council,” wrote Mr Ndlovu.
The BPRA coordinator further revealed that they would be also engaging with private laboratories and NUST to run tests on the water specimens that have been acquired from Luveve residents and other areas in the city.
“Residents are bedridden and are complaining of severe stomach pains and vomiting and they are adamant that the cause may be the contaminated water they have been receiving from the local authority.
“The age group between 0-16 years seems to be the most affected in the areas with a couple of adults also complaining of stomach pains,” said Mr Ndlovu.
Online Reporter