Large swathes of Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, and adjoining towns have gone without water for weeks, forcing residents to store water in often unhygienic drums borrowed from elsewhere in the city.
Worst affected are the four-million-strong city’s middle-class eastern suburbs, where one resident said on Wednesday he ”could not remember when he last had water”.
The Harare city council director of works, Psychology Chiwanga, blamed the shortage on ”technical problems” at the city’s main water-treatment works.
Meanwhile, the city’s public-relations manager, Leslie Gwindi, blamed neighbouring towns for the problem.
”It’s really a problem for us being able to have enough water to supply everyone,” he said.
Harare city supplies the urban areas of Ruwa, Epworth and Chitungwiza, now indistinguishable as separate towns because of Harare’s urban sprawl. — Sapa