Gweru Goes 5 Days Without Water, Council Blames ZESA
Gweru has been without running water for five days thereby raising fears of a humanitarian disaster.
Taps ran dry across the whole city on Saturday due to a power outage at the city’s water supply source – Gwenhoro Dam which is situated 46km away from Gweru.
Gweru mayor, Councilor Josiah Makombe said there was no electricity at Gwenhoro Dam following the power outage on Saturday morning. He said:
There are some ZESA poles which collapsed along the power line to Gwenhoro Dam on Saturday. ZESA has been working on them.
Because of the power outage, we haven’t been pumping water and that resulted in the taps running dry.
ZESA is working flat out to address the fault line and we hope soon we will have water back.
People with boreholes on their properties especially in low-density suburbs such as Athlone, Lundi Park and Kopje have been selling the commodity for US$4 per 20litre bucket.
In high-density areas such as Mkoba 15, 18 and 21, those with wells which are mostly unprotected have also been selling water for at least US$2 per 20litre bucket.
