OVER 15 000 residents at Mberegwa business centre are sitting on a ticking health time bomb after going for five months without running water.
The hospital, the district administrator’s office and police station have also been affected by the water crisis.
Acting district administrator, Chalton Murove confirmed the water crisis, saying efforts to engage the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) had yielded nothing. The centre is home to over 15 000 residents.
It is understood that the crisis developed after one of the two water boreholes at the centre broke down in April.
Zinwa spokesperson Majorie Munyonga said they were aware of the situation and their technical team was working hard to fix the problem.
Murove said that the situation was so dire that some Blair toilets were full and some of the affected people were using bush toilets.
An electric borehole belonging to a local businessman that was assisting in the situation also recently broke down and people were getting water from Mtshingwe River and other unprotected sources. Unscrupulous people are selling a 20-litre bucket of water for $3.
“Mberengwa office gets its water supplies from two boreholes –one of them broke down – and government institutions like the hospital and police, which are on high ground are failing to get water. We have fixed the borehole and we are in the process of drilling a third borehole so that we may have sufficient water supply,” Munyonga said.
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Patients at Mberengwa Hospital said the place was in a mess due to the water crisis with relatives asked to bring water for patients.
Mberengwa district medical officer, Gabriel Ndagurwa, however, chose to play down the crisis.
“Our Blair toilets are not full. We are having water challenges, but not for five months. Interventions are in progress to get water running reliably, we are connecting our borehole to reservoir tanks, which are already in place,” he said.
Mberengwa North MP Tafanana Zhou said he had petitioned Zinwa CEO Jefter Sakupwanya over the issue. — Mirror
