BY WINSTONE ANTONIO A HEALTH time bomb is ticking away in Centenary’s Hillside area in Mashonaland Central province, where residents have gone for 10 years without clean, potable water, forcing them to draw water from open wells or queue at the town’s only borehole. They said the only borehole in the area had become a potential spreader of the COVID-19 virus as people queued for hours on end in search of water without observing social distancing protocols. “We are afraid of succumbing to diarrhoea due to the water crisis.  It exposes us to water-borne diseases like cholera. There is no hope that the water situation will be attended to anytime soon,” a resident, who refused to be named, told NewsDay. “Section 77 of our Constitution states that every citizen has a right to access clean water, and that the State has an obligation to ensure that this right is progressively realised, but we have always been given excuses. It is now years after we got these stands, but there is no clarity on the water issue. Hillside residents rely on drawing water from wells,” he said. Muzarabani RDC is also under fire for failing to service roads in the area, with residents demanding accountability on how road funds were being used. Gatu Residents Association chairman Gift Sibiya said the borehole that residents were using did not have the capacity to produce enough water. “It is high time funds from whichever coffers must be allocated towards the Hillside residential area for water and electricity installation,” Sibiya said. He said the Zimbabwe National Water Authority was dragging its feet in addressing the perennial water shortages. Meanwhile, Fenton Park residents have also raised concerns over the poor state of roads in the area, accusing the same council of sleeping on duty. Muzarabani RDC chief executive officer Ennie Mupamutema did not respond to messages sent on her mobile phone and neither did she pick calls. Follow Winstone on Twitter @widzoanto