BULAWAYO City Council (BCC) has warned residents against drinking borehole water, saying its quality could not be guaranteed.
BY NQOBANI NDLOVU
The news comes in the wake of an earlier warning by the local authority that there would be prolonged water cuts because water levels at some of its supply dams had dropped to critical levels.
Boreholes have been used as a stop-gap measure during times of prolonged cuts, but the local authority said the bacteriological quality of the water could not be guaranteed.
“Borehole water was naturally salty because it was drawn from deep-down the ground and the degree of saltiness would depend on the nature of rocks in the water table from which it was drawn from,” the council report reads.
“Bacteriological quality of borehole water could not be guaranteed since the water was untreated and subject to contamination at any time from environmental factors like sewer overflows and bacteriological contaminated soil. Residents were therefore advised to boil borehole water before drinking.”
Bulawayo has faced water challenges for years and often the city fathers resort to penalising residents who hoard the precious liquid or exceed their daily quota. Last week, the local authority said it could be forced to stop water purification due to the lack of treatment chemicals, particularly ammonia and polyelectrolyte stocks due to foreign currency shortages.
