Water barons take advantage of crisis to fleece residents

UNSCRUPULOUS individuals in Bulawayo are taking advantage of the water crisis in the city to sell the precious liquid to desperate residents, as well as charging delivery costs to those, who cannot manage to travel to various water delivery points.

The city is going through one of its worst water crises in recent years, with the Bulawayo City Council continuing with the 130-hour water shedding schedule introduced last year, amid indications that the schedule could further be tightened as available supplies continue to dwindle.

To further exacerbate the situation is the city’s obsolete infrastructure, which has increased pipe bursts, seeing some suburbs going for longer periods without water as the local authority works on repairing them.

Last week, it was revealed that 30 suburbs would go for over a week without water, as the local authority struggled to get materials to repair a burst pipeline connecting Criterion to Magwegwe Reservoir.

Most residents now rely on council bowsers and boreholes for water, a gap that water barons are now exploiting.

Investigations by Zimpapers revealed that the water barons charge US$1 for four buckets, charging an extra US$1 for delivery services.

These water barons are mainly operational in Pumula, Nkulumane, Luveve and Cowdray Park.

Zimpapers interviewed several residents who revealed that it is costly to consistently purchase water.

Nkulumane 12 resident, Mr Thamsanqa Khumalo said the water barons’ charges have seen residents adopting tight water saving strategies, some of which are detrimental to their health and hygiene.

“These water barons take advantage of the fact that most of us spend most of our time at work and have no time to look for water. However, their charges are just too much at US$1 for four buckets, at times they even say it’s for three buckets.

I used to do laundry three times a week, now I have to be extra cautious with how I use each bucket as I cannot always afford to purchase water,” he said.

“It is hard to adjust to a reality where your use of water is limited, having dirty laundry for more than two weeks while going to bathe with a quarter bucket of water and sometimes we have nothing to use in the toilets.”

In Luveve, the residents said the crisis has particularly affected senior citizens as the old suburb has a high concentration of the elderly.

They revealed that it is difficult for the senior citizens to cope as they have to adjust to paying for the water and also paying individuals, who fetch water for them, as some of these elderly stay alone.

Another resident, Miss Nomagugu Ndlovu, who has taken it upon herself to assist the elderly in the suburb to fetch water on their behalf, said it was unfair what the water barons were doing.

She said old people, who do not stay with any relatives are going through a lot as they have to pay for water services, which was a form of exploitation.

“The situation is unfair on these old people, who already do not have any source of income,” she said.

“It is possible that some of them have children and relatives, who do not even financially support them.”

The water crisis has also inflicted devastating effects on Entembeni Old People’s home in Luveve, where they have started resorting to borehole water.

A worker at the elderly home, who refused to be identified by name said running an elderly care home without a reliable water source would cause serious challenges, particularly in maintaining hygiene and providing essential care to the elderly.

“They need a consistent change of blankets, which is mostly twice a day,” she said.

“We have to be extra careful with how we relate to the elderly, ensuring that we promote health habits.”

Local businesses that rely on water have also faced their share of problems.

Mr Timothy Dhliwayo, who works for a car wash in Nkulumane said they were now turning away cars that come for services due to a shortage of water.

“This was unexpected and people are failing to cope. The crisis has been persisting for three weeks now and we were not prepared for this,” he said

Commenting on the city’s water situation, Bulawayo United Residents’ Associations (Bura) chairperson, Mr Winos Dube took a swipe at city councillors saying they were not handling the city’s water situation with the seriousness it deserved.

He said residents have lost faith in the local authority, with reports that some individuals connected to council are deliberately tampering with the pipes to support their private water service delivery.

“How can they always be missing their deadlines? We start to wonder if they are giving us realistic expectations or if they would have analysed the situation,” he said. Sunday News