Dry Xmas for Beitbridge residents

BEITBRIDGE residents have gone for days without water, including Christmas Day and Boxing Day, following an electrical fault at a pump station.

The busy Beitbridge Border Post and Beitbridge District Hospital were not spared by the outage.

Beitbridge town clerk Loud Ramagkapola did not respond to questions sent to him over the matter.

But the municipality on Christmas Day issued a notice indicating that an electrical fault at a pumping station was to blame for the water crisis.

"The municipality of Beitbridge would like to advise residents that the local authority is aware of water interruption affecting wards 4 and 5," the notice signed by public relations officer Raniel Ndou read.

"The interruption is a result of an electrical fault at Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) but has since been repaired. It was, however, discovered there was a faulty valve."

But residents accused the local authority for poor service delivery.

"They are always finding excuses, or blaming other departments," a resident Tafadzwa Sithole said.

Another resident Albert Moyo added: "It is not just wards 4 and 5 but the entire town, who are they fooling. They must put their act together."

Nurses at Beitbridge Hospital said the situation was unhealthy.

"We handled two major accidents without water and it was quite a challenge.

"We had not expected such a water cut. It is also difficult to come to work after struggling to get water to bathe," a nurse at the hospital said.

"Accident victims' treatment demands a reasonable amount of water to wash bloody victims and administer medication on clean wounds. The situation is unhealthy."

Water shortages are not new in Beitbridge which owes Zinwa in excess of $20 million in unpaid bills.