Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Reporter
PUPILS at Njube High School in Bulawayo are living on a health time bomb as parts of the institution has been submerged in raw sewage, following numerous burst sewer pipes and overflowing manholes.
Njube High School SDC treasurer Clever Mutasa points to chair half submerged in raw sewer at the school
Parents have called for the immediate but temporary closure of the school until the Bulawayo City Council attends to the crisis.
Raw effluent has been overflowing for more than a month with the problem only briefly easing whenever council workers attend to it, on the numerous times that school authorities have reported the matter.
Three classroom blocks near the school sports field are now leaning to one side due to the wet grounds while the football ground is sewer water logged with green grass sprouting around the dirt. There is a pungent smell around the classroom blocks with both learners and teachers wishing they had an option of not attending lessons from the blocks that are heavily affected.
The whole school garden is under sewer water. The school is set to lose all its crops that include tomatoes and vegetables, which are part of an income generating project.
Leaners told Chronicle Online that they are living in constant fear of contracting diseases like Cholera, dysentery and diarrhoea.
“We are seeing flowing human waste every day and the situation is unbearable, not to mention the smell coming from the raw sewer,” said a Form Two pupil.
School development Committee treasurer Mr Clever Mutasa said the school needs to be closed immediately to allow for major works on the sewer problems.
” It might be a far-fetched idea but we feel the school should be temporarily closed. Rains are on the onset and I shudder to think what the situation will be like judging by what we have just seen now. This is a major disaster looming, these innocent lives must be protected,” said Mr Mutasa who together with other members of the SDC witnessed first-hand the messy situation at the school.
Authorities at the school, with an enrolment of about 1 500, have constantly been engaging the city council on the matter but the municipality seem to have been attending to symptoms not the cause.