Soldiers deployed to help distribute water in Bulawayo

By Tichaona Sibanda
18 August 2005

Soldiers from the Zimbabwe National Army’s One Brigade in Bulawayo have been deployed in some areas of the city to help distribute water to some residents who have gone for weeks without water supplies.

Bulawayo has been dogged by erratic water supplies caused mainly by bursting water pipes. The underground water pipes were laid in the 1950’s and council, led by the newly re-elected MDC mayor, Japhet Ndabeni-Ncube has failed to secure foreign currency from government to buy new equipment.

Themba Nkosi, our Bulawayo correspondent, said critical water shortages in some parts of the city are now a cause for concern to the authorities.

‘Some residents have gone for weeks without water and there are fears the situation could trigger a massive health disaster in a city still struggling to come to terms with the operations murambatsvina,’ said Themba Nkosi.

Humanitarian efforts are slowly kicking into gear, and ZNA troops are already doing much of the work. They have briefly laid down their weapons and exchanged their armoured troop carriers for water bowsers, which they are using to distribute water to the worst affected areas in the city.

With the country’s economic stability sliding further down, causing the breakdown in social services, the army had been called upon to provide military assistance to civilian power.