PARIRENYATWA Group of Hospitals is battling serious water challenges as a result of erratic supplies from the City of Harare amid calls to prioritise health facilities in the rationing exercise.
BY STAFF REPORTER
No stranger to persistent water woes, the facility is now relying heavily on its reservoir, a situation which further jeopardises the patients and puts enormous strain on their only water source.
Last week there were reports that the hospital had no water and relatives of patients flooded the social media demanding swift action.
They blamed the local authorities for not getting their priorities right and called on the Health minister David Parirenyatwa to intervene and restore sanity.
Hospital spokesperson, Lenos Dhire, said they had introduced water rationing to ensure that critical areas had water. “We had a temporary shutdown of one of our lines from the reservoir on Thursday due to a new connection that was being instituted,” he said.
Dhire said the shutdown which lasted a few hours was, however, only targeted at non-critical areas.
“The situation would have been dire had it not been of the hospital’s initiative to construct the water reservoir with the capacity to service the whole hospital complex for three consecutive in the absence of council water,” he said.
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The hospital official said it was now prudent for the city fathers to give priority to hospitals.
“The city should actually prioritise hospitals since we are dealing with sensitive life issues,” said Dhire.
Parirenyatwa is not the only facility facing water challenges with reports that Harare Hospital is also facing serious challenges.
Meanwhile, some residential areas in Harare have also been facing water challenges for more than a week.
Council spokesperson Michael Chideme blamed erratic water treatment chemicals for the water shortages.
“We have paid our suppliers but they are failing to deliver on time hence we are forced to reduce the amount of water treated,” he said.
He said they were now using available limited supplies to keep the city going.
“Until the situation on the delivery of water treatment chemicals improve we will continue to face challenges,” said Chideme.
