COWDRAY Park residents have gone for more than a month without water amid concerns over possible outbreak of waterborne disease since they are resorting to unprotected sources.
Residents told Southern Eye that they have gone for a month without water due to what city council and engineers say is due to “gradient levels”.
The residents said they had been subjected to dehumanising conditions.
They also said the water tank that was installed by the city council to help them access water was not enough as there were many households that did not have running water.
“We have not had water for over a month now. The city council installed a water tank around 2022 that was meant to help us access water, but it is not enough. We can only manage to get less than seven buckets per house and that is supposed to last us for some time,” residents said.
One of the residents, who only identified himself as Moyo, said they had resorted to buying borehole water from fellow residents.
“The most painful reality that we are facing is that on one hand, we are buying water and on the other, we are paying bills to the city council, which are always increasing every month,” Moyo said.
“We used to dig wells in our yards, but due to the drought that has affected the whole country, the wells have dried up. Efforts by the city council to drill boreholes have been futile.”
Cowdray Park ward 28 councillor Ntandoyenkosi Ndlovu declined to comment and referred all questions to mayor David Coltart and council corporate communications officer Bongiwe Ngwenya.
Ngwenya promised to revert to us when questions were sent to her on Tuesday, but she had not responded at the time of going to print last night.