Zimpapers Logo

Midlands Bureau Chief
CASH strapped Gweru City Council (GCC) is facing a plethora of service delivery challenges affecting residents from uncollected refuse, dry taps to pothole infested roads.

Residents are afraid a health hazard is looming as the local authority is failing to collect refuse owing to obsolete trucks as well as unavailability of fuel.

Residents said they fear there could be another outbreak of waterborne diseases such as cholera and typhoid especially now that there is flooding across the city.

Some residents staying in Woodlands Park have called on the local authority to remove a dump site in the suburb because water is flowing into their houses from the rubbish heaps.

GCC has been failing to provide efficient service citing lack of funds mainly attributed to non-settling of bills by residents and companies.

The city’s road network is filled with potholes, a development that has seen even Zupco buses shunning roads such as some in Mkoba 12, 17 and 9.

Mrs Letwin Sibanda from Mkoba 20 said it has been a long time since council refuse trucks visited their homes.

She said residents were now forced to dump refuse at undesignated areas.

“In Mkoba 20, we last saw GCC refuse trucks early last year. We are burning refuse while others dump in drains and other undesignated areas. Now with the rains we are afraid of waterborne diseases because some are dumping used diapers in drainages. We call on the local authority to respond so that we don’t see another wave of typhoid.

Remember last year there were some cases of typhoid recorded, so we are living in fear,” said Mrs Sibanda.

Residents in Mkoba 12 said they have seen the council barricading section of Mkoba 3 High School to Mkoba 16 road — a move that has seen Zupco buses avoiding the route which needs rehabilitation.

As a result, residents who used to board buses along the road are now being forced to walk to Mkoba 7 to seek transport.

Mr Desmond Nyathi from Woodlands Park said the dump site in their area was a cause for concern.

He said dirty water was flowing from the dump site into their homes.

“For years council has promised to move this dump site but to no avail. Last year they said they had identified a new site near Go Beer farm and required $5 million and to date nothing has taken shape. Every time it rains our houses flood with water coming from the dump site and we are afraid of diseases,” he said.

Mr Xavier Matarutse from Mkoba 1 suburb said he wakes up at 5am to look for water from a council tap that was installed near Mkoba 1 police station following complaints from residents that water doesn’t reach their area.

“Every day around 5am I wake up to queue at the council tap. By 9am, the tap will be dry. At times I do water harvesting for other uses such as laundry and bathing. For drinking I have to queue,” he said.

Gweru Mayor Councillor Josiah Makombe said debt by companies and residents had risen to more than $220 million in the past few months. “Residents are not settling their bills and that is making it difficult for us to operate fully. We have been trying to make them settle their bills but they are failing to because most have been affected by this Covid 19 induced lockdown,” he said.

Cllr Makombe said the city was trying by all means to improve service delivery and would soon consider debt collection to force residents to settle their bills.

“If we recover part of the over $200 million we are owed, service delivery will improve and that will include moving the Woodlands dump site,” he said.

GCC spokesperson Ms Vimbai Chingwaramusee said the local authority received $9 million from the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) last year, an amount she said went towards the purchase of “a few drums” of bitumen.