Mpilo Central Hospital has been affected by the ongoing water shortages in Bulawayo, with relatives forced to bring water in containers for patients admitted to the major referral hospital.
Some residents who spoke to CITE said they were saddened by the worsening situation in the city and urged the local authority to exempt health institutions from the water-shedding schedule.
Some members of staff also noted that the water challenges are quite severe and there are some wards that do not have running water at all, as well as some hostels that have been affected too.
Bulawayo is currently faced with severe water challenges and last week the local authority issued a statement that it is only able to pump water for about 8-10 hours a day, which does not meet the demand.
The irregularities have been blamed on the power cuts by the Zimbabwe Electricity and Distribution Company.
“My relative was admitted yesterday. When we got there, she asked for water to drink, the nurse who was there said there was no water and we ended up going to buy water for her. We are worried about water for other things such as bathing and the toilet. We really do hope that the hospital makes a plan,” a resident told this publication.
Members of staff who spoke on condition of anonymity said the hospital has been suffering acute water challenges for the past two weeks.
“The hospital did not have running water for the past two weeks. There is no water at the maternity ward. They had said they would call the council, but we are not sure if they have called yet. Some wards now have water, but the pressure is very low,” a staff member said.
Another member of staff said the water that is available is far from the wards and they make several trips to fetch the water.
“Water is collected from the kitchen. It is far from where the patients’ wards are, and the pressure is very low. So really getting the water from there and going up several flights of stairs with it is quite some work,” they said.
“For the past three days, we haven’t had water at the hostels. The water situation is really bad. We have alerted the relevant offices, so we are awaiting a solution to the challenge.”
When CITE visited the health institution, there was a bowser from the city council that was filling jojo tanks at the facility.
Chief Medical Officer for Mpilo Hospital Dr Narcisius Dzvanga said the hospital does not have an independent supply of water and is affected whenever surrounding suburbs are cut off.
“Mpilo does not have an independent BCC water supply. We are connected with other places, so we are equally affected. We do have four functional boreholes unfortunately they are not directly connected to the hospital side. This is because BCC refused to allow us to feed water into them from their systems,” Dr Dzvanga said.
“We also have multiple jojo tanks that are strategically positioned around the hospital close to the wards. We recently got assistance to draw water from them to the higher floors. The only challenge with them is that they fill up either through the bowsers or running water. If we get neither, then they will be empty.”
Dr Dzvanga said BCC has been very consistent in dispatching a bowser whenever there is prolonged water shedding.
