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Walter Mswazie Masvingo Correspondent
Masvingo city residents have clashed with council as taps in most suburbs in the country’s oldest town are producing “dirty’’ and poor quality water, raising the spectre of an outbreak of water-borne diseases. Residents who spoke to The Herald yesterday urged the city fathers to speedily resolve the problem. Masvingo district chairperson of Community Working Group on Health (CWGH) Mrs Entrance Takaidza called on council to take necessary measures to ensure that water used by residents was safe. CWGH is a network of civic and community-based organisations.

“Most of the residents have resorted to buying mineral water from the shops for drinking because the water we are getting from our taps is dirty and has a suspicious colour. We are not satisfied that the water we are getting is still of good quality,” said Mrs Takaidza. She said council should always supply residents with water that is purified to approved standards.

“Residents of Masvingo city never used to shun council water before because the water we used to get was always certified clean and free of diseases, but we no longer feel safe because the water we are getting now has a brownish colour and we are concerned about its safety.’’ However, Masvingo city engineer Tawanda Gozo, who confirmed that some taps were producing water with a brownish in colour, allayed fears over its safety.

“I can confirm that sometime back our water was coming out through the taps with a brown colour. However, I can assure the residents that the water has been certified clean and meets World Health Organisation (WHO) standards,” Engineer Mr Gozo. The change in colour, he said, was caused by the absence of hydrated lime, which has since been procured.

“The problem of a brown colour in water was caused by the absence of hydrated lime. We have since procured the requisite chemicals to produce the usual colourless water that our residents are familiar with.I however want to repeat that our water is very safe to drink; there is no need to panic,” said Mr Gozo. Masvingo, which gets all its water for domestic consumption from Lake Mutirikwi, used to be known as the home of arguably the cleanest water in Zimbabwe, but a severe cash sqeeze has been limiting council’s capacity to timeously secure water purification chemicals.