by Grace Chekai
The MDC Alliance-led Bulawayo City Council has been blamed for the increase in the cases of diarrhea in that city.
Citizens have indicated that mismanagement by the council has seen the city going for a long period without running water.
Latest reports claim that Bulawayo has recorded an increase in diarrhea cases.
“Diarrhea has claimed 13 lives, the city authorities remain on high alert for a typhoid outbreak as the city continues to face water problems,” said an official within the council.
Tarisai Ncube, a Njube resident lamented over the water shortages in Bulawayo indicating that it has affected her business of selling vegetables. She further said that the water challenge was as a result of the failure by the opposition councilors to run the urban councils.
"We can no longer practice safe hygiene when selling our vegetables. We have tried by all means to talk to our ward councilors to address the challenges, but it failed to yield anything tangible,” said Ncube.
Another resident in Magwegwe said that the MDC Alliance Councillors were not doing anything to address the water crisis and that residents in Bulawayo have resorted to installing plastic water tanks.
"It is sad that desperate residents have decided to respond to the water crisis in the city by installing water tanks. But this is only done by a few residents like us who are able to part with our hard earned cash so that we can deal with this water crisis which has now resulted in the upsurge of water-borne diseases," he said.
Water challenges and poor reticulation are now a cause for concern in urban areas to the extent that residents are requesting the Government to take over control of the urban councils.
Harare has also not been spared by the water crisis. Some residents in Harare have been forced to draw water from open sources in cemeteries.
Water borne diseases such as typhoid also hit Harare in the past week with four children contracting the disease.
Corruption within the MDC Alliance-led councils has also led to poor service delivery in the urban areas. The MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa also lamented over the corruption among his councillors, which has impacted on service delivery.
