Zimbabwe much needed water reservoirs delayed by mermaids

[wautd]

No, I'm not making this up. We can now add mermaids to the long list of problems haunting Zimbabwe

Reason for Zimbabwe reservoir delays... mermaids have been hounding workers away!
Minister Nkomo said the only way to solve the problem was to brew traditional beer and carry out any rites to appease the spirits
The two overdue reservoirs are considered essential to provide Zimbabwe with adequate water

Essential work on planned reservoirs in Zimbabwe has stopped because mermaids have been hounding workers away, according to the country's Water Resources Minister.

Samuel Sipepa Nkomo told a Zimbabwean parliamentary committee that terrified workers are refusing to return to the sites, near the towns of Gokwe and Mutare.
Minister Nkomo said the only way to solve the problem was to brew traditional beer and carry out any rites to appease the spirits.

All the officers I have sent have vowed not to go back there', Minister Nkomo was reported as saying in Zimbabwe's state-approved Herald newspaper.

The senior politician said that mermaids were also present in other reservoirs.
'We even hired whites thinking that our boys did not want to work but they also returned saying they would not return to work there again,' he added.

The two, long overdue reservoirs are considered essential if Zimbabwe is provide adequate water to its population and to boost its agricultural production.

Having once been the 'bread basket' of Southern Africa, the country's farms have been laid low by lack of faith in government policy.

From 2000, President Robert Mugabe expropriated some 4,000 white owned farms and gave them to politically connected blacks.

Partly as a result, agricultural production is this year forecast to be at its second lowest level since Zimbabwe achieved independence from Britain in 1980.

The belief in mermaids and other mythical creatures is widespread in the country, where many people combine a Christian faith with traditional beliefs.

Local Government, Rural and Urban Development Minister Ignatius Chombo said the government wants to give the population the water it needs, but cannot do so until the rituals are performed and necessary repairs can be carried out.

Three quarters of Zimbabwe's population live on less than one US dollar a day.

At least we know how to combat them (Beer, the cause and the solution to all of life's problems)

[Zixinus]

Is Daily Mail reliable?

Either way, this is both amusing and sad.

[CJvR]

LOL!

Just how much of that traditional beer did the minister drink before making that statement? Beer might solve the mermaid problem but you might develop a pink elephant problem instead...

[Irbis]

Just how much of that traditional beer did the minister drink before making that statement? Beer might solve the mermaid problem but you might develop a pink elephant problem instead...

A lot, probably. Though, I kind of wonder about part:

'We even hired whites thinking that our boys did not want to work but they also returned saying they would not return to work there again,' he added.

Superstitious whites or is there really a problem and so called 'water spirits' are just idiotic excuse thrown by ones around to not say what it really was?

[Grumman]

It probably means the money's been embezzled somewhere along the line, and now they're making up excuses for why the work wasn't done.

If we're lucky, next time it will be dragons.

[Zed]

Alternatively, the minister's recommending executing the rituals to restore morale to a superstitious population. I tend to be sceptical of these "look at these dumb Africans" kind of stories. It's nearly always more complicated than the story brings.

[Tanasinn]

Is Daily Mail reliable?

Not in the slightest. It should be treated as something like a hybrid of your average toilet paper checkout lane tabloid and Fox News.

Absurd superstitions are only absurd if you don't share them. Here in America we have laws about selling booze on Sundays, a subset of blue laws found in other western countries, too. Granted, they're going the way of the dinosaur, but America and the west has a considerable head-start on Zimbabwe for eliminating childish practices rooted in the ridiculous superstitions of bronze age madmen.

[Patroklos]

Having once been the 'bread basket' of Southern Africa, the country's farms have been laid low by lack of faith in government policy.

Yeah, um, no. Faith in anything was not the problem.

[madd0ct0r]

I can't find anything on this beyond the daily mail article and clones.

and since the daily mail isn't above massively distorting stories, i'm going to take this with a pinch of salt.