BY SILAS NKALA/HARRIET CHIKANDIWA
BULAWAYO City Council (BCC) has decommissioned Athlone cemetery after it ran out of burial space.
Town clerk Christopher Dube confirmed the development in a notice to residents yesterday, adding that the city had commissioned Umvutcha cemetery to fill in the gap.
“The City of Bulawayo would like to inform the public and valuable stakeholders that burial space at Athlone cemetery has been exhausted. In view of the aforementioned, the cemetery will be decommissioned with effect from January 7 with the subsequent commissioning of Umvutcha cemetery,” he said.
“No more regular burials will be conducted at Athlone West. However, the cemetery will remain open for second interments and burials in reserved graves.”
In October last year, BCC said bodies repatriated from South Africa were topping the number of people buried at the city cemeteries, amid calls for residents to adopt cremation and save on burial space.
In a different matter, the town clerk also advised residents that there would be interruption of water supplies to areas fed by Tuli Reservoir from Sunday to Wednesday next week .
“The Bulawayo City Council is informing its members of the public that there will be interruption of water supplies at areas fed by Tuli Reservoir from Sunday January 9 to Wednesday January 12,” the city said.
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“This interruption will allow inspection of cracks and soundness of the clear water reservoir at Ncema (built in 1955) that feeds into the Tuli reservoir.”
The disruption would affect Ezgodini, Imbizo Barracks, Fortunes Gate, Selborne Park, Matsheumhlope Parklands, Queenspark suburbs Mahatshula, Woodville, Kingsdale, Lochview, Sunninghill, Marlands, Glencoe, Riverside , Waterford, Manningdale, Willsgrove and Douglasdale.
“Bulawayo City Council wishes to apologise to its valued customers for the inconvenience likely to be caused and assures the affected residents that supplies will be restored once the treatment and subsequent pumping resumes at Ncema waterworks, “Dube said.
Last year, BCC abandoned a 144-hour water-shedding schedulde it had introduced, advising that it would only pump water when it is able to do so. The city has been rationing water for years, mainly because of prolonged droughts.
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