Houses face demolition

understood that over a thousand houses and businesses were built illegally and the previous administration did not do anything to stop it.
This came out during a Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Natural Resources, Environment and Tourism hearing yesterday.

Chitungwiza acting town clerk and head of the council’s resuscitation team Mr Farai Mbetsa told the committee that the new administration wanted to bring order in the satellite town.
Tsholotsho South legislator Mr Maxwell Dube (MDC) chairs the committee.

“We have done a report on the issue of stands and now we know what is right and what is wrong,” Mr Mbetsa said.
“We are now going to follow up on what needs to be done like removing construction on road servitude, we have cases of houses that were built on sewage pipes, we can’t have electricity lines on top of houses.

“We will remove those houses to make way for proper housing plans.
“We will also regularise construction on areas that have no issues.”
Chitungwiza South legislator Mr Misheck Shoko questioned if the previous council did not approve the construction.
“I can confirm that council was aware of what was happening but wasn’t doing anything about it.

“To some extent council was facilitating some of the things.
“There has been a lot of infils on open space even on waterways that is why we are trying to stop developments on improperly planned areas.
“It looks like there was a spree for people to build houses ignoring the need for crèches, waterways and on road servitude,” said Mr Mbetsa.

The committee took the council authorities to task over dumping refuse and sewage into Nyatsime River that feeds into Lake Chivero.
Mr Mbetsa said the local authority was financially crippled making it difficult to improve service delivery.
He acknowledged that there were dumps along Nyatsime River.

“We have been trying to remove the dumps but we have been constrained by lack of adequate equipment for instance we don’t have a front end loader.
“However, we have identified an area to locate as a dumpsite, we hope with the assistance of Environmental Management Agency we will be able to use it,” Mr Mbetsa said.
He attributed the dumping of scrap material to informal trading in the dormitory town adding that it was difficult for them to stop people from doing their enterprises when they were trying to earn a living.

Mr Mbetsa said the African Development Bank had given the council a US$1,2 million loan facility to address some of the challenges affecting the authority. Government, he said, was supposed to bail out the authority so that it can match the town’s ever increasing population demands.
The town’s population currently stands at 1,5 million. Mr Mbetsa said most of the waste management facilities were constructed before independence when the town’s population was small.