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Herald Reporter
Harare City Council has condemned the layout of 213 stands in Budiriro 5 Extension, saying the area is flood-prone and unsuitable for human settlement and those living on these stands must be urgently relocated.
The area floods when the Marimba River comes down in flood after heavy rains. Recently the Government had to assign 40 of the households to new homes at Dzivarasekwa Flats.
This came out at a council meeting when acting town planner, Mr Samuel Nyabezi said the stands were unsuitable for people to live there and that those occupying the land should be relocated urgently.
“We went to Budiriro, the area that was perennially affected by flooding; we identified 213 stands as unsuitable for settlement,” he said. “We condemned all the 213 stands because we have a few stands which are not affected but they cannot exist on their own.”
Mr Nyabezi added that all the stands were supposed to be removed from the legal lists and council recommended cancelling the creation of all the stands.
Despite efforts by some cooperatives, Mr Nyabezi said the whole area of Budiriro 5 Extension remains condemned by council.
“Then a few weeks down the line, we were approached by one of the cooperatives. We had used our money; we had used people’s money to develop that area. They were making some arguments and they went further to consult the Environmental Management Agency. They went further to consult engineers which they mentioned and brought some documents to us.
“But we said fine, we are not going to rely on your engineers. We will consult the City of Harare first, we will take your documents to Upper Manyame Sub-Catchment Council, we will do further investigations but as things stand, there are no stands.”
On the ground, Mr Nyabezi said people are still staying at some of the stands. He said the council has identified other layout plans that needed investigation. “We also have some other plans which we are doing, like the Mabvuku-Tafara,” he said.
“We have three in particular and there are over 2000 stands.”
The Government recently relocated around 40 families from another flood-prone area of Budiriro to the newly built Dzivaresekwa Flats.
President Mnangagwa commissioned the flats.
Online Reporter