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Zimbabwe’s Second-Biggest City Imposes 72-Hour Water Cuts

All residential suburbs except for the central business district, industrial areas and mines will have water supplies rationed.

Zimbabwe’s Second-Biggest City Imposes 72-Hour Water Cuts
Local residents fill buckets and containers with water at a communal tap as the sun sets in Empompini in Cowdray Park, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. (Photographer: Cynthia R Matonhodze/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Zimbabwe’s second-biggest city, Bulawayo, imposed 72-hour water cuts as reservoir levels deteriorate due to drought and pumping is disrupted by power outages lasting 18 hours.

All residential suburbs except for the central business district, industrial areas and mines will have water supplies rationed for 72 hours a week, the City of Bulawayo said in a statement Thursday. Previously water supplies were cut off for 48 hours.

A review of the water cuts would depend on whether its water reservoir levels, which are currently 38%, “improve or deteriorate beyond the critical level,” the city said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ray Ndlovu in Johannesburg at rndlovu1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Gordon Bell at gbell16@bloomberg.net, Jacqueline Mackenzie, Helen Nyambura

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