Ever heard of dying of thirst while your feet are in water?
Nokuthaba Dlamini Own Correspondent
That is what residents of Victoria Falls are going through, despite living on the shores of the Zambezi River. Some have gone for close to two months without running water.
Mfelandawonye, Garikai, Mkhosana and Chinotimba are the most affected suburbs.
In an interview, Victoria Falls town clerk Christopher Dube said the onset of the hot season and ageing water pumps had contributed to water shortages.
“During the hot season, it is common to have less water because of the raw water shortages mainly at the river, there is a channel that is used to supply raw water pump and what is happening is that that pump needs to be deepened and widened, so that there is adequate raw water supply, but there is only one pump that is too old,” he explained.
“There is also a high demand of water during the hot season and that also contributes to the problem especially those suburbs on higher ground.” Dube said power cuts had affected water supply.
“We are trying to take over pumping raw water from Zinwa (the Zimbabwe National Water Authority) so that our residents do not suffer, but unfortunately for now it has not yet been approved,” he continued.
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“We made an appeal to the water and climate authorities and it is being processed, this is a tourist destination, so water must not be a problem.” Dube said towns like Plumtree and Kariba were already pumping their own water and Victoria Falls should be allowed to do the same. He said to meet expectations, the resort town had to pump 920 megalitres to residents.
However it was only receiving 600 megalitres from Zinwa.
“As long as we do not have enough pumps for raw water the water problems will not end and our consumers will always suffer,” Dube said.
Victoria Falls town engineer Sherinah Sibanda said ahed of last year’s United Nations World Tourism Organisation’s (UNWTO) summit, Zinwa had embarked on a number of water projects in the town, but had not finished them and this had contributed to the water problems.
“As you can see in preparation of the UNWTO they did not finish their projects and the pipes are lying idle on the streets, they dug a pump house, but it was left unfinished.
“We tried our best to revamp the town, but we failed to complement each other,” she said. “We now end up rationing some suburbs because the pumps are not adequate.”
