Freedom Mupanedemo, Features Reporter
It’s about 4PM on a windy Wednesday and the streets of Gweru’s mucky suburb of Mtapa are an incongruous mix of raucous home industries, crumbling Victorian-era cluster houses, dilapidated buildings with shattered windows and a coterie of roadside vendors — all being serviced by one communal toilet.
Along Rough Street is ironically a rough strip with sporadic patches of tar; a stark reminder that this strip road was once tarred.
Jubilant boys, unperturbed by the deplorable state of this suburb — Gweru’s oldest — defiantly play plastic ball on the little space they could find.
Under the shade of a peach tree, a boy who could not bear the pressure of waiting for his turn to get into the suburb’s only communal toilet, takes a bath in the open in front of his parents’ one roomed home.
The communal toilet, located at the heart of the suburb, totters with age and its brick walls tell a sad story of its common purpose abuse from the ever increasing population that seeks its service day in day out.
The toilet, which has male and female entrances was designed in the early 19th century for a smaller population of men and women who occupied the one roomed semi-detached clusters when Gweru town was established.
But it’s now serving a whole lot of Mtapa’s bustling population, both the young and the old.
“It’s now a health hazard; the population has ballooned and this one toilet is now overwhelmed. We bath from the same toilet and it’s always crowded. It’s also dilapidated and the walls are falling every now and then.
“The city fathers should do something to transform this old suburb,” said Gogo Ndawi Gutu, one of the first residents of Mtapa.
Gogo Gutu said the suburb had never been improved since it was established.
She said the toilet was dilapidated to the extent they are easily seen by passersby while bathing.
Gogo Gutu said some use old sacks to cover open areas when bathing as most parts of the toilet walls have fallen apart.
“The local authority must act by destroying this whole suburb and building modern houses because they have failed to put these cottages under the home ownership scheme like other towns have done with old suburbs.
“Imagine boys seeing an old person like me bathing. This is what happens here in Mtapa. Our toilet is so dilapidated such that it’s as good as someone relieving themself in the open,” she said.
Another resident, Mr Patrick Chavhunduka said every building in Mtapa suburb was becoming a death trap.
“The toilet has become a death trap just as houses have also turned into death traps. There are cracks all over the walls and with the way we are squashed in these houses, we are sitting on a health time bomb,” he said.
Gogo Irene Muradzikwa said each room in Mtapa was occupied by an average of six people.
“I stay in a single room with my two children who have their own children now. We are six in one room and some sleep under the bed. There is nothing we can do because these are council cottages, they cannot be extended,” she said.
“Just last week, a seven-year-old boy sustained a fractured hand after he fell into the toilet hole headlong. The city council should quickly find a solution to this problem before its degenerates into a disaster.”
Councillor for Mtapa Joas Tsanyawo said he had tabled the issue before council and there were immediate plans to decongest the suburb by relocating some of its residents.
He said town planners had done a site survey with the hope of building new habitable structures in Mtapa.
“We all appreciate the fact that Mtapa is Gweru’s oldest suburb but the situation there is not good now. People are crowded and they use communal toilets.
The council is doing something to address this. Some people will be relocated but this cannot be done overnight.
“There are plans to construct flats in Mtapa. There are also plans to renovate the old hall in Mtapa and the new plan for Mtapa suburb was sent to the local government ministry for approval,” said Clr Tsanyawo.