-as it clocks 13 years without water
ROSELINE MUTARE
GWERU-Twenty households of Mkoba 1 opposite Makanda Shopping Center are living in fear of disease outbreaks as they have gone for over 13 years without running water from Council, The Midweek Watch can reveal.
The 20 Mkoba 1 households have not been without tap water since they took occupation of the houses in 2010 and for ablution facilities they have been relying on the benevolence of neighbours or the bush at night posing a serious health hazard.
“Water, is an essential for life, we cant do without water in life, but here we have never had that commodity.
“We only get clean water from City Council bowsers which is not adequate and unreliable which is causing us sleepless nights as any time we can experience disease outbreak.
“Every time there is cholera or typhoid outbreak in the City we are not spared and if the situation continues like this, we will one day experience deaths from water borne diseases,” said one resident on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals from the City Council.
The place has no toilets and that is a cause for concern for the small community as they are embarrassed to seek toilets from neighbours from time and again.
“Imagine the embarrassment that we go through by asking for a toilet on a daily basis, worse still if one has some visitors, it strains our relations from the neighbours as they cannot continue to offer us toilets.
“As a result we end up using the bush to relieve ourselves, which may cause disease outbreaks and sometimes there is no privacy in the bush due to deforestation,” another resident added.
Gweru Residents and Ratepayers Association recently wrote a letter of complaint to the City Council, questioning how the 20 households got certificates of occupation without basic infrastructure and facilities like water and toilets.
GRRA executive director Cornilia Seliphiwe said the situation is forcing the residents to fetch water from unreliable sources and this can create potential hotspot for cholera and typhoid in the City.
Efforts to get a comment from the Gweru City Council Director of Housing identified as Eng Masukume were fruitless until the time of posting the story.
