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Speaking during a Bulawayo United Residents’ Association (Bura) meeting in Mpopoma yesterday, residents’ association leaders from the city’s 29 wards said the council’s on-going water disconnection exercise had gone beyond reasonable levels.
They challenged councillors to urgently look into the issue to avert an imminent health disaster.
“The massive water disconnections we are seeing these days will soon throw the entire city into a heath crisis. This is a serious problem and our councillors should be very careful of where this situation is leading us,” said one of the participants.
“If the situation continues like this the city runs the risk of having cholera and diarrhoea outbreaks, which we would not be able to control.”
The residents took turns to castigate the crop of councillors in the presence of Ward Six Councillor Jennifer Bent, who also attended the meeting.
“The problem is that we have councillors who are alienated from the people and cannot listen to the people they purport to represent. They do not care about us hence they support decisions that are against the interests of residents,” said another participant.
Others accused councillors of seeking to please their political masters instead of attending to residents’ concerns.
They said vulnerable groups such as the elderly, pensioners and child- headed families were the most affected by poor decisions by council.
“The councillors should assess the composition of its consumers and consider that there are vulnerable groups of people who are in a desperate situation and there is no hope that such will afford to pay for any water reconnections,” said another participant.
The residents’ association leaders said their homes were inundated with complaints over inflated water bills by council and accused the local authority of using estimated readings.
“A lot of people are complaining over huge bills. It has been proved that when they approach council offices the bills are reduced. This shows that council is cheating residents by using estimated charges. In some cases you find a bill of about $6 000 being reduced to about $2 000 or less and that is unfair,” said another participant.
Speaking at the same occasion Bura chairman Mr Winos Dube described the water disconnections as an unfair and terrible move.
He said denying residents water was like denying them the right to life.
“This is terrible and as residents we are worried over the massive water disconnections that have left over 10 000 households without water. Our question of course is where do these people get their water?” asked Mr Dube.
“From our records some households have been without running water for more than a year and some for several months.
We are not happy about that and residents have openly condemned the on-going disconnections.
“The council must stop that and councillors must work with the people and residents’ associations to find alternative ways of recovering debts. We support the call for residents to pay their bills on time but our position is that council should allow residents to pay what they have. Residents have a lot of challenges and some of them cannot afford the huge bills.”
The residents also called for the immediate rehabilitation of roads, repair of tower and streetlights and increased interaction with councillors over issues that affect them.
Responding to residents’ concerns, Clr Bent said the local authority was aware of the challenges facing residents in paying their bills.
“We know that residents have challenges especially the elderly who are pensioners and workers who are not paid on time by their companies. However, council also needs money to pay its creditors and enhance service delivery,” said Clr Bent, who is a member of the finance committee.
“At the moment council is owed over $65 million by consumers against about $59 million it owes to creditors. We are looking into the issue and urge residents to support council by paying their bills on time.”
She urged residents to report all water leakages, guard against vandalism of water infrastructure and to make their own meter readings and consult council offices when they have queries.
Two weeks ago, residents thronged the council’s Revenue Hall to protest against being billed twice for the month of May.
Last month 14 504 households and properties were disconnected as the council sought to recover the millions of dollars owed to it by consumers.
Online Reporter