News / Regional
Beitbridge hit by serious water shortages
24 Jan 2013 at 21:47hrs | Views
BEITBRIDGE border town has been hit by serious water shortages following the flooding of the pump at the water treatment plant as a result of the torrential rains, which have been pounding the district this week.
The water treatment station, which is located a few metres from the Limpopo River was submerged on Monday morning and by end of day yesterday engineers from the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) were still trying to drain the water from the pump.
The floods also left the back-up generators submerged and affected the power system.
The town has been without water since Monday morning and the residents have to rely on 33 boreholes, which are dotted across the border town.
Town Secretary Dr Sipho Singo told the Beitbridge Civil Protection Unit yesterday that the taps would remain dry for the next seven days while they tried to repair the pump station.
The town needs at least 15 000 cubic metres of water per day but the local authority has been supplying a third of the daily requirement. The town has 4 000 houses and is home to over 40 000 people.
The floods have also affected construction work on the new treatment pump, which is being sponsored by the Government.
Dr Singo said the floods had also damaged the water and sewer reticulation infrastructure.
He said four points had been damaged on the main sewer line and three points had since been repaired.
The Town Secretary said the bus terminus and several link roads were extensively damaged and their engineering department was working on them."We expect to start pumping water to the houses in a week. At the moment engineers from Zinwa are working round the clock to fix the pump, which was submerged due to flooding of the Limpopo River," he said.
Dr Singo said they were doing everything necessary to avoid the outbreak of water-borne diseases such as cholera.
The water treatment station, which is located a few metres from the Limpopo River was submerged on Monday morning and by end of day yesterday engineers from the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) were still trying to drain the water from the pump.
The floods also left the back-up generators submerged and affected the power system.
The town has been without water since Monday morning and the residents have to rely on 33 boreholes, which are dotted across the border town.
Town Secretary Dr Sipho Singo told the Beitbridge Civil Protection Unit yesterday that the taps would remain dry for the next seven days while they tried to repair the pump station.
The floods have also affected construction work on the new treatment pump, which is being sponsored by the Government.
Dr Singo said the floods had also damaged the water and sewer reticulation infrastructure.
He said four points had been damaged on the main sewer line and three points had since been repaired.
The Town Secretary said the bus terminus and several link roads were extensively damaged and their engineering department was working on them."We expect to start pumping water to the houses in a week. At the moment engineers from Zinwa are working round the clock to fix the pump, which was submerged due to flooding of the Limpopo River," he said.
Dr Singo said they were doing everything necessary to avoid the outbreak of water-borne diseases such as cholera.
Source - TC
