The Masvingo City Council has apologised to residents after it pumped muddy water to households for the second time in as many weeks.
In a public notice dated 28 January 2021, the city promised that it was addressing the source of the problem. The city said:
The City of Masvingo regrets the supply of discoloured tap water which is brownish in colour.
We are in the process of addressing the source of the problem and we trust we will be through by Sunday morning the 31st of January 2021.
Any inconvenience caused is deeply regretted.
Meanwhile, TellZim News reported a source saying one of the council employees in the Engineering Department mishandled the city’s tank and pipe cleaning exercise leading to the fiasco. The source is quoted as saying:
There was a mistake when water was opened into one of the reserve tanks before the cleaning work had been completed. This is the water which was coming out of the taps during the past week.
This is not the first time that the City of Masvingo had to issue a public apology over dirty water.
A fortnight ago, the city issued another public notice saying it acknowledged reports that it had been pumping muddy water into homes.
The city said the problem was caused by maintenance work which was carried out on a major pipeline and the subsequent resumption of pumping on the 16th of January 2021 resulted in loose dirty and rusty particles being blown out with the water.