Suburban
Diana Nherera Suburban Reporter
Residents of New Alexandra Park say they endured eight months without council tap water and after several complaints to the City of Harare, they ultimately received some supplies.
But the water supply is, however, not consistent.
“Like we are supposed to have water today (Tuesday) but there’s nothing.
“I don’t know why we pay our bills.
“It’s frustrating to say the least.
“They dig holes and leave them for months and months and no one is interested.
“Most of the time we now do their job ourselves as residents,” said a resident of the suburb.
Residents of Nkwisi Gardens in Ward 16 said they have gone for three months without water and are having to rely on neighbours with boreholes.
In New Strathaven, residents said they have had water for a week or even less in the past two months due to numerous pipe bursts in that area.
“I am a resident of New Strathaven and we have had a lot of burst pipes lately.
“They fix a portion and as soon as they open up the water, another part starts to leak.
“It has been extremely inconveniencing.
“For years now, I have not used my bath tub because it is always full of water.
“We have buckets all over and bins outside with water.
“We cannot afford a borehole and have begun to consider digging a well.
“Vegetables are expensive but because we ask neighbours for water, you can’t exactly ask for extra water for the garden when they are doing us a favour?” said the New Strathaven resident.
She said the most annoying part is when there is a burst pipe and council workers attend to it in a week or more.
“When you make the report, water is turned off almost immediately but it will take days for them to come and dig.
“Then they disappear and reappear after a couple of days to complete the job.
“As residents, we have approached council workers when they are working in our area and assisted with all sorts of things such as buying the pipes ourselves.
“A few days ago, a resident had to buy joints to connect the pipes because the leak was right outside her house and council didn’t have the joints for the new pipes.
“We have helped with transport to collect the pipes and pick the manpower and this past Sunday, they were asking for extra manpower to help in digging a part that had leaked after they had finished repairs near the leak.”
The requests from council workers keep coming in and residents feel they are now abusing their goodwill.
“We had another incident not so long ago where the council guys said they would only fix the pipe after the cactus plants were chopped down that were growing around the water pipes.
“And we had to rally our gardeners to clear the area.
“Then they came and said you need to uproot some trees yourselves and I made a report to a water superintendent for the area as I felt that they were really taking advantage of our good will.
“We used to provide tea or juice and something to eat but people are now tired because the leaks are just too many.
“It’s not fair to ask ratepayers to buy parts they do not have.
“The money for the parts should come from the money we pay them,” said the New Strathaven resident.
Along Sandringham Drive in Old Alexandra Park, residents said they have had municipal water for only 30 minutes in the past four weeks.
“It’s very annoying as one pays these huge council bills and gets absolutely nothing in return; no rubbish collection (I pay a private company), no street lights and appalling roads).
“At least you get what you pay for when you buy ZESA,” she said.
A resident of Belgravia said they went for 10 days without water.
“It came back on Saturday (last week) with low pressure and dry taps today (Tuesday),” she said.
An Avondale resident who lives at Bedford Gardens said they get water with low pressure some days but get turned off during weekends.
New Alexandra Park residents said they have resorted to hiring a private company to collect their garbage as they had gone for two months without any rubbish removal by council.
“We now have private operators to collect our garbage as we had eight weeks of no collections.
“They came last week but I can tell you that maybe they collected from very few houses; less than 10 people as most people have lost hope,” she said.
Residents of Aberdeen Road in Avondale said they have gone for a month without any refuse collection.
Residents are also complaining that when the garbage truck comes, they just race down their streets and do not hoot to alert them to take the rubbish out.
Acting Director Harare Water, Engineer Victor Musikavanhu said there are pipes that are blocked therefore affecting water supply to Nkwisi Gardens.
“So they are clearing the pipes and that should be completed by end of day today (Thursday) or tomorrow (Friday).
“That area usually has water based on its location.
“They get water from the Harare Drive and Kirkman Road interconnection,” he said.
Eng Musikavanhu said Strathaven is affected by burst pipes on Lyndhurst, Christchurch and Lymington Roads.
“Normal supplies should be restored in the next week.
“Strathaven gets water from Fridays up to Mondays.
“Between Tuesdays and Thursdays, they are affected by demand management,” he said.
In Belgravia, Eng Musikavanhu said there was a burst pipe on Churchill Road which took time to repair.
He said residents and businesses should expect water this week or next week.
Eng Musikavanhu said there is also another burst pipe along Cork Road although it’s a smaller problem as compared to the Churchill Road one.
