Ward 19 residents in New Magwegwe have bemoaned the worsening water crisis in the area saying they have spent almost a month in some areas without running water.
This comes at a time when residents in Bulawayo are enduring a 96-hour water-shedding program as the city’s dam levels are critically low.
Residents who spoke to CITE said they are now worried as the situation only affects a part of the suburb.
“It is almost a month now since we have been experiencing water challenges in New Magwegwe, half of the suburb gets water according to the water-shedding program but the other side of New Magwegwe is heavily affected,” said Mellisa Ntulini.
“What is worrying is that just across the road, there is Lobengula West and they have a water-shedding time table and on notable days they get water.
Ntulini said they last received water from their taps around November.
“The last time we received water from our taps was the last week of November,” she lamented.
She added that the situation has now led to some residents paying to get first priority when the council water bowser delivers water.
“In most cases when the bowser comes to deliver water, there are some residents who now do what we call “bribe” for them to access water first,” she said.
Ntulini said besides relying on water bowsers, they also get water from some church buildings in the suburb.
“We at times access water from church boreholes but this means that if there is no one in the church premises we cannot get water on that particular day,” said Ntulini.
“There are no other community boreholes where we can access water,”she said.
Another resident Ephraim Ngulube said they are forced to other suburbs in search of the precious liquid.
“We had to go far as Pumula North, looking for water you have to understand that people nowadays complain about their water bills when we ask for water,” said Ngulube.
“We have tried to raise these issues in meetings to say how best can we deal with people who would have helped others with water in time of need but nothing has been done,” he said.
However, the local authority is on record saying that areas such as Magwegwe would be highly affected by the 96-hour water shedding as they draw water directly from Magwegwe reservoir.
