Lupane State University (LSU) main campus in Lupane has gone for four days without water and electricity supplies, putting students’ health at risk.
Students at the campus said they are faced with a health bomb due to the crisis.
“Yesterday the whole day they did not clean the toilets. We haven’t had decent baths due to lack of water,” said one student who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The students expressed disgruntlement claiming the university authorities did not formally communicate with them on the water problem.
“The school board hasn’t really formally addressed the issue so we don’t really know what is happening. The SRC tried to demonstrate yesterday but there was no change,” said Sanele Donga, a student at the university.
The state university gets its water from the Bubi-Lupane Dam.
Another student said the authorities switch on the generator which pumps water only at night.
“They switch on the generator for a few hours at night so we have to stay alert. Whenever the generator goes off we are cut off water and electricity supply,” he said.
“The Unavailability of electricity has set us back on research as there is no internet”.
There are approximately five hundred students living on campus.
In an interview with CITE, LSU’s Director of marketing and communications Mr Zwelithini Dlamini confirmed the development saying it was mainly caused by electricity poles which fell thereby affecting water supplies to the campus.
“As of yesterday we have identified two electricity poles which have fallen and we are still looking for more poles up to Hwange.
“As soon as we identify the poles, we will rectify the issue,” said Dlamini.
Dlamini said the campus had back up water tanks with a holding capacity of 6 500 litres to cater for students.
