Chronicle Editor
Thandeka Moyo- Ndlovu
OLD Luveve residents have called on the Bulawayo City Council to urgently attend to burst sewers which have become a health time bomb in the suburb.
The residents said they have failed to get assistance on the local authority’s online platforms as they are constantly told that they cannot be attended to swiftly due to lockdown regulations.
Council has been dogged by challenges emanating from obsolete water and sewer reticulation systems coupled with the rapid growth of population in the city over the decades.
Last week Gogo Minaj Sibanda (74) from Nkulumane made headlines appealing to the local authority to remove a sewer manhole close to her door which has been traumatising her since 1984.
In a video captured at the affected Luveve homes, flies buzz around the area where raw sewage is flowing.
The human waste had formed a stream barring affected residents from coming out of their houses or eating.
With heavy rains that have been experienced in Bulawayo over the past few weeks many residents have resorted to collecting water from drainages due to water shedding.
Children from the area are even collecting water near the overflowing manhole.
Chronicle visited the affected residents who said the area’s councillor has failed them.
Mrs Saziso Mhlanga said she has incurred additional costs creating a pathway for the sewage to at least flow out of her yard.
She says eating and cooking are now a bother as the stench coming from the sewage is so strong it kills their appetite for food.
“We have been reduced to a smelly community. We cannot even invite our relatives to visit. We always have an overflowing sewer outside our yard. We are tired of reporting this issue. I feel council doesn’t want to attend to us,” she said.
“We have had this problem for months. It’s worse now since it’s raining because children are fetching water from drainage pathways that have sewage running from them.”
Mrs Mhlanga said the WhatsApp platform which council set up for services during lockdown has not been helpful as they are tired of being “blueticked” by responsible personnel.
Ms Margaret Nkomo, who is Mrs Mhlanga’s neighbour, said she is tired of clearing faeces, blood, newspapers and tissue paper from the flowing sewage.
She says the problem has created additional chores for the families who often have to clear their littered yards more than five times a day so that they can at least walk into their homes.
“We are tired of engaging council which has done nothing but give endless promises. We have even volunteered to use our own resources to contain the situation by buying tools to unblock the clogged sewer,” said Ms Nkomo.
“We are not sure how we are surviving with all this stench but at this rate we are likely to all die from cholera and other diseases because council is not attending to us. May the responsible authorities come to our rescue. We desperately need our normal lives back,” she said.
Next to Mrs Mhlanga lives Ms Thandeka Mpofu who says they are often forced to scoop out sewerage with their buckets to be able to access the tap and toilet.
She says the family’s health has been comprised as they often suffer from diarhoea which could be caused by the overflowing sewer line.
“This problem has been with us for a long time. It was better when the former Councillor (Israel) Mabaleka was alive, council used to respond swiftly as he was a neighbour. Now we report and get no responses which shows that maybe council is not able to save us,” she said.
Ms Nkomo said: “Council workers do come from time to time but these days even if they come their solution lasts about five minutes and then we are back to square one. We are grateful the rains have been cooling the temperatures otherwise things are worse when it’s hot, we now fear for our lives,” she said.
BCC last week assured residents that it is working round the clock to ensure improvement of service delivery in the city.
The local authority has in recent months been under attack from residents who have raised a red flag on deteriorating standards of service delivery in the city with sewer flowing in most high-density suburbs.
More than 70 percent of the roads are in a deplorable state and the city is failing to provide a constant supply of water.
Last week, councillors read the riot act to senior council officials over the deteriorating state of service delivery ordering the Town Clerk, Mr Christopher Dube, to submit a report on the under-performance of council’s engineering department, which is led by Engineer Simela Dube. — @thamamoe
Online Reporter