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Bongani Ndlovu, Chronicle Reporter
THE overpowering stench was unbearable as sewage flowed over graves at West Park Cemetery in Bulawayo yesterday while families buried their loved ones.

The flowing raw effluent has become a common sight in Bulawayo’s residential areas and it seems even the dead are not being spared.

Mourners were forced to jump over the raw sewage which was flowing along the dusty road that leads to the graves and had to also dodge swarms of green flies.

Hearses tried to avoid the raw sewage to get to the graves with little success.

A Chronicle news crew was greeted by a pungent smell when it arrived at the cemetery in the morning and witnessed raw sewage seeping into some graves that have caved in.

Mourners decried the general state of West Park Cemetery saying the neglect is very disturbing.

“Seeing the casket of a very special person being carried over sewage for burial is disturbing. How does the council fail to attend to such an important place that also houses Lady Stanley Cemetery where Bulawayo’s heroes are resting? People had to jump over flowing sewage that was seeping into some graves,” said one mourner, who declined to be named.

Another mourner blamed the councillors for the state of West Park Cemetery and general decline of service delivery in the city.

“The driver of the hearse had a tough time trying to find a route with no sewage to get to the gravesite. I think we need a change of these so-called city fathers because they are a complete failure,” the mourner said.

“We had to endure the putrid smell of raw sewage as we buried our loved one yet we religiously pay our rates and service charges to enable council to attend to such issues. What is painful is that the deceased we buried today timeously paid her rates only to be accorded such a shameful send off.”

Even after leaving the cemetery, the stench of raw sewage still lingered in the nostrils.

Bulawayo residents have been battling council to urgently attend to burst sewers, which have become a health time bomb.

Last week, raw effluent flowed from a blocked manhole in the central business district along Fife Street and 11th Avenue.

Mzilikazi, Makokoba and Old Magwegwe are some of the suburbs where residents have been grappling with raw sewage flowing into their houses for months now.

Last year about 100 people, mostly children, were treated for running stomachs in Mzilikazi and surrounding suburbs.

Flushing toilets in the affected suburbs results in a backflow of human waste that goes into houses.

In June last year, there was a diarrhoea outbreak in Luveve suburb which killed 13 people and infected nearly 2 000.
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