Council warns residents over illegal waste disposal

VICTORIA Falls City Council has raised a red flag over the illegal waste disposal by residents including the flushing of inappropriate items such as diapers, towels and kitchen utensils, which has led to severe blockages and subsequent collapse of the sewer system.

This has resulted in sewage flowing on the surface and through storm drains, causing significant environmental and health hazards since February. The worst affected areas include Ward 6 in Chinotimba suburb

In a statement, Victoria Falls town clerk, Mr Ronnie Dube said the council is currently in the process of replacing and upgrading 160 metres of old pipes that had sagged.

“The City of Victoria Falls wishes to advise its residents and stakeholders that the main sewer line that conveys sewerage to the sewer treatment plant collapsed sometime in February. Despite the immediate action to repair the pipe during that time it continued to collapse in that region which prompted us to further examine the possible causes,” he said.

“The findings indicated that the causes of the collapse of the sewer line were that the pipe lies in an area that is prone to the formation of gullies, and sewer lines had sagged. To carry out these works there is a need to block sewer flow on the main line mainly the manhole behind Chinotimba Halls.”

Mr Dube said the affected areas include Chinotimba Clinic, industrial areas along Pioneer Road and houses in Ward 6. He said the city expects to finish the work mid-next month.

Victoria Falls City Council engineer Sherinah Sibanda urged residents to be responsible.

“We have our main sewer that conveys almost all the sewerage from Chinotimba and industrial areas to the plant collapsed due to age, corrosion and also due to demand. It can no longer take the load, and its capacity is now lower than it can handle so it has collapsed and as a council, we need to upgrade the sewer line,” she said.

“So what we have done as council is to procure pipes and we have started works to replace the sewer line and we expect to fish by mid-July.”

Eng Sibanda attributed the collapse of the system to blockages. She said there is a need to upgrade the sewer infrastructure to better handle waste and prevent blockages.

“There is a lot of garbage being thrown into the sewage system and we have towels, diapers, kitchen utensils clogging the system. So we encourage residents to repair the gulleys so that when water flows into the sewer system it is screened,” she said.

To address this issue, Eng Sibanda said there is a need to educate residents on proper waste disposal methods and the consequences of their actions on the sewer system.

“Behaviour has to change. We are going to have a campaign to educate residents on how to take care of their environment to avoid diseases. We have storm drains that block during the rainy season because of litter especially opaque beer bottles thrown by residents which should stop,” she said.—@ncubeleon