Residents of several high-density suburbs of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second-largest city, have been without running water for the past two weeks due to an electric power blackout around the Magwegwe Water Reservoir, whose pumping station serves those suburbs.
Suburbs affected include Emakhandeni, Magwegwe, Lobengula, Phelandaba and Entumbane whose residents told VOA that they must now fetch water from unsafe sources as they can't afford to buy 20-liter buckets of water at a price of South African rand (65 US cents).
Zimbabwe only recently shook off a cholera epidemic due in large part to contaminated water supplies which cost the lives of nearly 4,300 people.
Bulawayo Mayor Patrick Thaba Moyo told reporter Sithandekile Mhlanga of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that the local authority is working with the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority or ZESA to restore power to the reservoir and get water flowing again.