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Where's the water? Stories from Bulawayo - Page 3
Marko Phiri and Chumile Jamela, Kubatana.net
November 2012

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Njube High Density Suburb
. . . if the door is open, just help yourself

With detached toilets positioned a couple of metres away from houses, residents are having a difficult time controlling who uses their toilets - especially at night. Families say they wake up to find their toilets soiled by strangers. This has led to disputes among neighbours accusing each other of waking up to shit in each other's toilets. "You shit in my toilet, I shit in yours!"

Xolisani Moyo (aged 42) rents a two-roomed house with her husband and two children. The house is already too small for them but now they have to find space for their numerous buckets, containers and dishes of water. Their toilet is too small to store their containers and it's also some metres away from the house. "I tried once, to store the water outside, and when I woke up there wasn't any water left and all my containers had been stolen. Who would have thought someone would wake up in the middle of the night to steal water," Moyo asks angrily but it's obvious and she requires no answer. Because it is here in this old township that fights have started in bowser queues, as residents are desperate to get water before it runs out.

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