Cowdray Park in water crisis as donors stop drilling boreholes

Bulawayo's Cowdray Park's Garikai/ Hlalani Kuhle residents have been abandoned  by donors who were drilling  boreholes after they failed to yield adequate water volumes, council has said.

Latest council minutes indicated some boreholes drilled in the area had dried up.

Most houses which fall under the Hlalani Kuhle Phase Two scheme have had no running water since they were built in 2006.

Recently, council urged the residents to embrace the prepaid water system and get connected to the city's main water pipes.

Some residents, out of desperation, have dug shallow wells at their houses while others rely on water trapped in pits dug by sand poachers.

Local councillor Collet Ndhlovu has since requested that Cowdray Park should be considered when funds for drilling boreholes became available.

"Donors abandoned this exercise when they failed to reach the water table. Only 30metres was drilled which did not yield any results," the council said in its report.

Council engineering services director Simela Dube said the drilling of the boreholes was based on the surveyor's findings.