Water woes mount in Gwanda as Council seeks autonomy from ZINWA

Karen Ndlovu

Gwanda town residents are reeling as a result of challenges in accessing water due to recurring water pipe bursts as they are forced to go on for up to three says without water as council repairs the frequently damaged pipes.
According to residents, it has been almost three months since the pipes started bursting one after the other and the situation is frustrating the residents who in this Covid-19 era need a consistent supply of water more than ever before.

A lady who identified herself as Sthandazile Ndlovu expressed serious concern, saying that the situation is now getting out of hand. This issue has affected me greatly as a young woman, especially considering the fact that I should be able to keep a clean space. As it stands, I am failing to do my duties properly because of lack of water. Sometimes I fail to take my children to school because I don’t have enough water to bath them let alone wash their uniforms.

“Worse still, my health and that of my family is being compromised. In this Covid-19 era, we are advised to constantly wash our hands, but how am I going to wash my hands if I don’t have water? This problem has been going on for too long and our hopes for a permanent solution are fast fading.” she added.

Zanele Nyathi, a resident of Ward 4 also bemoaned the intermittent water supplies due to pipe damages. She noted the town council’s efforts to mitigate the challenge of water pipe bursts which have so far failed to bring about meaningful, lasting solutions to the ward whose residents use one public toilet.

“This water issue is seriously affecting us in ward four. We use a public toilet that can go for a few days without water due to pipe bursts and that spells serious trouble for us health wise. Council has tried to ameliorate the crisis by putting up a jojo tank but the tank can only provide water just for cleaning purposes. The jojo tank is so small and it can’t contain sufficient water for us to use for three days in succession. When the water supply is cut off, as is usually the case, our toilets become so messy and almost impossible to use especially for our children. We also use water from a single public tap in the ward. The tap has a prepaid meter and any resident can use the tap as long as they have the token. Even people from other locations such as Garikai and Spitzkop are benefitting from the tap. However, because of high demand for the liquid due to frequent water pipe bursts, the queue to access the tap is usually too long and residents have to spend hours in the queue,” said Nyathi.

When reached for comment Councilor Thulani Moyo said that the infrastructure is now too old and therefore the pipes need to be rehabilitated. He implored residents to pay their rates in order to capacitate the council in rehabilitating the water system.

“The truth is that the pipes are now old and the whole pipe infrastructure needs to be overhauled.. The pipes that have been repaired don’t get affected, but the ones which have not been repaired keep on bursting. We need to rehabilitate the pipes from the main pipelines. For us to be able to rehabilitate all the pipelines we need money, therefore rate payers should also play their part and pay their rates. If all residents oblige by paying the dues, we would also be able to pay out the ZINWA debt and buy new pipes,” said Moyo.

Moyo explained that the water problems stem largely from the dual ownership of the water system by ZINWA and council. He revealed the council’s frustration at paying millions to ZINWA which makes it difficult for the former to offer efficient service delivery. The councilor expressed the council’s desire for autonomy and full control of the water system.

“Gwanda water is dually owned. ZINWA maintains the delivery main line and the council owns the supply line. We wish that ZINWA could give us the treatment plan so that we run the water service delivery on our own as council. If we didn’t have to pay millions to ZINWA, we could easily give our residents good quality service delivery. We need this dual ownership terminated and we wish that the government could help us in that area. In that way we can take the blame for poor service delivery if we fail the residents,” said Moyo.