BY REX MPHISA BEITBRIDGE town has gone for three days without water due to a burst pipe, forcing residents to resort to unhygienic sources of water.
Town clerk Loud Ramakgapola told Southern Eye that the pipe bursts were due to archaic water reticulation infrastructure.
“Generally, the pipes are old and most of them are asbestos pipes. They are no longer in use in modern times. The recommendation is to use PVC pipes. We will have to budget for a complete upgrade in the 2022 budget,” Ramakgapola said.
In a notice on Sunday, the municipality said its engineers were attending to the pipe bursts with hopes of a quick return to normal water supplies.
“Affected areas include wards 1, 2 (low-density area), ward 3 and part of ward 6 (Alpha, Garikai Hlalani Kuhle) and Madinginye suburb (GD254),” read the notice dispatched by management.
“Repairs have successfully been done on the line supplying wards 3 and 6, while repairs are still outstanding on the line supplying wards 1 and 2 due to unavailability of materials. We are making efforts to ensure these are availed by tomorrow.
“Beitbridge Prison, Beitbridge District Hospital and the country’s border post have been affected by the latest water cuts.”
Residents accused the municipality of failing to provide stop-gap measures such as delivery of water bowsers to the affected suburbs.
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They said the municipality was failing to warn them of water shutdowns on time.
Meanwhile, hundreds of prospective house owners in the SDP area of Beitbridge are pooling resources to raise US$31 726 to build a trunk line in order to have their homes connected to the town’s sewer system.
Some of the residents fully paid for serviced stands in 2012.
Near their area, there is also a section where medium-density and low-density houses have no water, sewage and electricity connections.
Ramakgapola said he could not immediately respond to the issue as he was on leave.
A committee member of the association of prospective house owners who declined to be named told Southern Eye that they paid US$6 700 to Forit Land Developers for development of the stands.
He said 259 stand owners were affected by lack of servicing of the stands.
“They are telling us we have to wait for roads to be developed first, but it has been like this since 2012,” said the committee member.
The residents have tasked their committee to open a bank account and raise among themselves US$31 276 for a sewer trunk line that will see them connected to the town’s sewer system.
The money they are raising is despite that when they purchased stands, the trunk line was included.
“The developer actually gave us a quotation of the trunk line. It is unfair. We are at a standstill.”
Peter Zvenyika, who lives in the New Medium Density, said for the last six years, Beitbridge Municipality had been promising to provide water.
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