adminblocked and burst pipes flowing nonchalantly down the streets, sending a foul smell wafting across the location.
Children play games: girls fold dresses into the seams of their panties and play boxes, while boys knock around the ball intermittently picking the home made ball from a pool of flowing sewage.
Everyday, these children, together with their elders, have become used to the streaming sewage and have systematically dug trenches to divert the sewage from their home front.
They have also put stones on paths to enable them to jump over the raw sewage.
For a visitor of Chipadze suburb in Bindura, it is surprising where these people get their appetite to eat, for, the foul smell should confuse the taste buds.
Undeterred, street vendors do the rounds, jumping over raw sewage in search of the elusive dollar, their dust-caked backs swarmed by flies.
It is quite a spectacle!
Many things go through someone’s head when he or she passes through Chipadze suburb in Bindura. The sprawling suburb is the pioneer high-density residential area in the gold-rich provincial capital yet its lifestyle is a health time bomb.
For a permanent resident of Chipadze, one word certainly will visit his mind: disaster. Well, apart from the busy lifestyle and frenzy of heated night life at the location shops that really never sleep, Chipadze is sitting on a health time bomb.
The situation at one of the oldest section of the suburb popularly known as ‘KumaOne” has gone out of hand. The section was named after a housing scheme of ancient blocks of 20 single rooms.
There, a family of, say five people, lives in one room, divided by curtains. One can imagine a teenage boy or girl sleeping in the same room with his parents as accommodation crisis hits the suburb.
Vice is the order of the day and spilling sewage is now normal more than having a day without sewage.
This situation generally explains that the suburb has no capacity to hub the existing population. The sewer system is therefore, overwhelmed.
Musvosvi, Dandazi, Chaminuka and Hwairera streets are now flowing with raw sewage on a daily basis.
So bad is the situation coupled with failure by the Bindura Town Council to deliver services.
One just hopes that the glaring failure by the council should attract the intervention of the Government and invoke the Public Health Act.
Secretary for the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare in line with the Public Health Act has powers to drag the local authority to court.
Ms Ireen Masangudza of House Number 71 Hwairera Street, which is the sewage rut save for the doorway, said the suburb has been living in sewage for a couple of months and the disaster is far from ending.
“Zvino ndodzura imba ndichiisa kupi? (Can I uplift my house and place it somewhere, where there is no sewage?)” asked Ms Masangudza, angrily.
Mbuya Rojasi of Block Number 20 “KumaOne” said the council as a responsible authority was toothless. She believes the council was after money and not concerned with well-being of the ratepayers.
“We have made several reports to the council but nothing has materialised.
“They are demanding rent every month. I am reliably told that the council was given a grant to help them out but nothing is materialising,” said Mbuya Rojas.
Mashonaland Central Provincial Medical Director Mr Clemence Chuma described the situation as a time bomb for diarrhoea with cholera being the deadliest.
He said it was the responsibility of the local authority to make sure that residents have quality water and good sanitation.
“To be honest the situation at Chipadze suburb is a time bomb diarrhoea diseases most deadly cholera. In the year 2009, we woke up in the morning and the whole Bindura town was in a camp.
“We have since informed our head office about the prevailing situation here and they have not yet communicated to us as the ministry,” said Mr Chuma.
“In the event that the council has become incompetent to arrest the situation the Secretary for our ministry has the powers vested in him to invoke Public Health Act and sue the local authority,” added the Provincial Medical Director.
Acting Bindura Town Clerk Mr Dean Masawi confirmed the sewage flows at Chipadze suburb saying the local authority has few procedures to knit up before work on rehabilitation of the sewerage system could begin.
He said the municipality has since received a grant from the central bank sometime in May this year in efforts to rehabilitate the sewerage system that has burst all over Chipadze suburb.
“Admittedly, we have sewerage problems at Chipadze suburb and I can also confirm that we have received US$1 million from the central bank through PSI funds and we are looking forward to begin tackling the problem in September,” said Mr Masawi.
He said the sewerage system at the suburb has no capacity service given the existing population. Mr Masunda said ageing pipes means the situation needs service overhaul.
“The central bank granted us money in May last year and there has been tender procedures we had to follow, that’s why we had some delays”, added Mr Masawi.
Online Reporter