Water shortages hit water companies
There hasn’t been any water at our office block since Wednesday last week, and the toilets are beyond disgusting.
On Friday, the building manager organised for a bowser of water to come, and everyone filled up as many tanks, drums, bins and buckets as we could find.
For a few days, things were clean and hygienic again, but now that water has run out and the situation is worse than before.
Now, we’re being asked to bring in water from home – not just for office use, but to donate for the toilets which are shared across all tenants. This is because the bowser contacts the building manager has been phoning are too busy to come and deliver.
In other words, all over Harare, water is so scarce that so many companies are placing so many orders for water deliveries that the water companies can’t keep up. This is without even getting into the bigger question of where these water companies get their water from (sometimes residential boreholes and by pumping directly out of city rivers and streams). In the rural areas, the problem is even worse.
September has only just begun, and it’s another two months until the rains start to recharge the city boreholes and water table.
If water is already scarce, how will offices and high density areas in particular weather the water crisis that will only worsen?