SOME residents of Cowdray Park in Bulawayo have gone for over a month without tap water and enterprising youths are taking advantage to sell the commodity at R30 for a bucket.
Bulawayo was under a 72-hour water rationing schedules, which it recently suspended due to vandalism of a transformer at the Epping Forest Waterworks.
While some suburbs go for about a week without water, Cowdray Park residents say they have not received water this month, and are having to buy buckets of the precious liquid from enterprising youths.
“The whole of December we had no water. Water was supplied to other parts of Cowdray Park, but here at Matheni there has been no water. They were saying it was because of a burst water pipe. On December 25, we were told that the pipe had been repaired. Water started coming out in other parts of Cowdray Park, but here in section 10 there is no water,” a resident told Southern Eye.
“We then get water from section 13 where it is sold for R30 per bucket. When it rains we collect water from rooftops. Now there is no rain hence we have to buy. There is borehole water at Emakhandeni (a neighboring suburb) but it is too far.”
Residents have called on Bulawayo City Council to solve the problem which they say is a recipe for disaster.
“Yes, they had a challenge in getting water but I instructed their representatives to open valves there for them to access water, and they are now getting the water.
“We also provide bowsers to the affected areas and it is not true that they have not been getting water for the whole month, it can be a week or two,” said Kidwell Mujuru, the Cowdray Park ward 28 councillor.
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“You know that next year it’s election time and people just want to start smearing the councillor's name. The water problem is not only being experienced in that section, but the whole of Bulawayo is experiencing water problems.”
Early this month, Bulawayo Metropolitan Affairs and Devolution minister Judith Ncube expressed concern over vandalism of water infrastructure at Epping Forest, which is disrupting water supplies.
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