Suburban
WATER has been gushing to waste for the past week or more due to a pipe burst on a trench dug and left open by City of Harare workers on Trinity Square in Greendale while residents’ taps are dry and have to buy water for domestic use.
Suburban Reporter
“This is a hole dug near Trinity Square (in) Greendale, left open and when water is on, it is pouring down the ditches.
“All houses are now affected by this loss of water, and are not receiving anything. This is the second weekend like this,” reads a caption on a video posted on the Greendale residents group.
A resident speaking on the video said numerous reports have been made to the City of Harare to fix the problem to no avail as the municipality pleads incapacitation.
“I phoned and reported this, to be told they didn’t have ‘materials to complete fixing!’ Then my husband phoned today and was told they now don’t have fuel to get there.
“What excuses are made every time! With the water turned on, nothing will be fixed, but then when it’s off, no one comes. Come on Greendale district (office) City of Harare. Eish,” lamented the resident.
She expressed frustration over how the City of Harare officials seemed unbothered when water is going to waste.
A young girl could be seen on the video using a bucket to draw water from the open trench supposedly to take home for household chores.
“This is all water that is going to waste in Greendale. We are reporting this constantly but nobody seems to be coming here to sort this out. So this what’s been left, it was dug here about a week ago or more.
“We have been reporting this and nobody is doing anything about it. Please this is right here in Trinity Square it’s on the corner of Trinity Road by the Trinity Square and it’s going up towards Greengrove Drive, so please we do need some help for this.
“I am gonna send this to you right now,” she said, probably referring to a council official. Residents then concluded that the leak on Trinity Square was perhaps the reason why they have not been having council tap water.
“Is this why we don’t get water anymore?” asked a resident.
Responded the resident who shared the video: “Yes, it is right on the corner of Trinity Square by the first house on our road but more towards Greengrove Drive direction of Trinity.
“So that’s why we have no water now and such low pressure last week.
“They dug this up, then it has been left without finishing so water gushing out of the pipes and down the ditches. Totally pointless.”
Harare’s water pipes have outlived their lifespan hence the numerous bursts and endless repairs. At Independence the regulations were that water pipes had to be changed at least every 25 years but pipes in Harare are about 50 years old now, Harare North Member of Parliament Mr Allan Markham told Ward 18 residents in Borrowdale at a service delivery meeting early this year.
He also explained how the City of Harare workers deal with burst pipes, which results in some residents going without water while others have it.
“The problem is this you are pumping water down the pipeline and there is a burst and you only doing that once a week for 24 to 48 hours.
“It will take you 12 to 20 hours to fill that pipeline. Then that pipeline pours into a tank which must push the water further up. So the issue is when you got a burst pipe you got to have to switch off everyone on that pipeline.
“So you then run into the issue when you get a pipeline burst and residents see the water and say gees I got for two days.
“The City of Harare guys decide let’s just keep the leak and at least give 95 percent of the people water. And then we will repair it when we switch off because most of Harare in the northern suburbs and the eastern suburbs get water 24 hours’ maximum.
“The shorter they pump the water, the more water they will get because the non-revenue water, that is the water that leaks off the pipes or is illegally connected, at one stage it was 62 percent of the water pumped, it’s down to about 50 percent now,” Mr Markham told the meeting held in May.
At least 50 percent of Harare’s treated water is lost to water leaks and illegal connections who do not pay for the water they consume while genuine paid-up ratepayers go for day, weeks, months and years without council tap water.
