BY RICHARD MUPONDE
GWANDA’S chronic water problems, which were largely attributed to obsolete infrastructure, are now a thing of the past after the rehabilitation of the water works.
However, residents bemoaned the ongoing water rationing exercise, which the mayor said was induced by power outages affecting pumping.
The town has perennially experienced critical water shortages, which have seen residents go for weeks without the precious liquid.
But over the past year, the municipality has been seized with addressing the water shortages problem as part of its drive that Gwanda attains city status by
next year.
This has seen the town fathers embarking on projects to revamp the water piping system and valves to ease the water problems.
They also built a multi-million mega 5-litre reservoir, which has been completed and is awaiting a test run.
Gwanda mayor Jastone Mazhale yesterday acknowledged the water shortages.
“It’s not bad. Every suburb gets some water every day, though rationed. This is solely because of power outages. The moment power is restored, water will be
supplied normally. It’s the problem of electricity which is affecting pumping, hence rationing. But it’s not as dire as other cities and towns,” Mazhale said.
The almost 15 hours of daily load shedding has reduced council’s water pumping time from the usual 36 hours, resulting in erratic water supplies.
Efforts to get a comment from ZETDC Gwanda manager, Todd Ntombi, hit a brick wall, with the official said to be out of his office. His mobile phone was also
unreachable.
The erratic power supplies have also not spared critical institutions and service providers such as clinics, hospitals and schools.
