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Pamela Shumba, Senior Reporter
THE Bulawayo City Council is set to connect water and sewer to 3 000 houses and hand over more than 1 200 residential stands to homeseekers by December 5, 2017 following the launch of the Rapid Results Approach (RRA).

The RRA programme was launched by the Government nationally on August 28, 2017 and runs up to December 5, 2017, with special focus on increasing access to water and waste water services by 10 percent.

The council’s engineering services director, engineer Simela Dube yesterday told residents at the launch of the programme that a number of projects to be implemented within the 100 days had been laid down.

“We’re targeting that by December 5 this year, we should have connected water supplies to 3 000 properties out of the 15 000 properties that do not have water.

“On sewer, our target is to connect sewer to 1 000 properties.

“We’re also targeting to handover 1 297 fully serviced residential stands to homeseekers during the period,” said Eng Dube.

He said 412 stands will be handed over in Emganwini and Tshabalala suburbs where contractors were already on site.

A total of 495 stands will be handed over in Magwegwe North and 390 in Magwegwe West.

Eng Dube said a 5, 5km sewer line that runs from Mahatshula to the main treatment works will also be completed as part of the local authority’s efforts to minimise pollution in Umguza Dam.

“This sewer line has been under rehabilitation by the contractor and we have given a directive that it should be complete within the RRA stipulated time.

We’ve also targeted working on a sewer line in Sauerstown, which is 12 metres deep. We’ll also work on improving the capacity to treat our sewer from the rehabilitated sewer lines.

“We also intend to improve 20km of road line markings and 10km of our road network within the stipulated period. We’re already working on a 16 km road in Nkulumane.

“Under the same programme we’re also targeting to replace about 500 road signs, clean 70km of drainage systems through our communities as well as replace our traffic lights with the LED system,” said Eng Dube.

Bulawayo’s Town Clerk Mr Christopher Dube said the 100 day programme is meant to strengthen accountability and enhance engagement between council and its partners.

“The RRA is critical to the council as it allows the city to develop and enhance its mandate of being a leader in local governance excellence. As a management tool, the RRA has helped us identify bottlenecks in service delivery by diagnosing and implementing solutions for improved efficiency.

“This is an approach that will also help us improve our capacity for diagnosing institutional constraints, enhance capacity for project and programme planning as well as improve the deliverable results in specific projects and programmes,” said Mr Dube.

He said the RRA consists of four phases which include shaping, launching, mid-point review and final review.

The programme, Mr Dube said, further complements other initiatives such as service level benchmarking, ease of doing business as well as the council’s strategic plan to ensure the development of Bulawayo.

“It’s therefore important that as Bulawayo, we embark on this journey together with stakeholders through this dialogue.

“It’s also important that Bulawayo as a leading local authority successfully demonstrates its leadership by setting high standards that can be replicated in other local authorities in the country and abroad,” said Mr Dube.

In a speech read on his behalf by Ward Councillor Nephat Sibanda, Bulawayo Mayor, Councillor Martin Moyo said Bulawayo’s RRA programme was an indication that the city prioritises Zim-Asset’s social services and poverty eradication clusters.

“As a city today, we demonstrate our commitment to ensure that we’re able to register high impact outcomes within the shortest possible time. The approach resonates with Bulawayo’s vision of being a leader in local governance excellence.

“The short term 100 days initiative forms a building block towards the achievement of the long term goals,” said Clr Moyo.

He said the council was already engaged in projects that seek to meet results in the shortest possible time and one of these is the ease of doing business.

@pamelashumba1