Residents take council to task

GWERU residents have taken the local authority to task over its failure to address a myriad of challenges facing the city which include the ongoing water crisis, uncollected garbage, constant sewer bursts and bad roads.

Heaps of uncollected garbage have become an eyesore in most of the city’s high-density suburbs. The affected suburbs include Mambo, Ascot, Mtapa, Senga and Mkoba. Residents are now forced to create dumpsites in open spaces near their homes.

To ompound the challenges, some areas in the low-lying areas such as Mkoba 6, 7, 3, and 4 have also gone for days without water. Others in high-lying areas such as Mkoba 15, 18, 19 and Ridgemont have gone for months with dry taps.

The local authority has been struggling to collect refuse owing to its aging fleet and fuel shortages.
Residents are now living in fear of contracting diseases such as cholera, typhoid and malaria as bacteria and mosquitoes take advantage of the breeding environment.

Swarms of flies and mosquitoes, which are the vectors of the deadly cholera and malaria have become a common sight. Cholera is a bacterial disease usually spread through contaminated water and causes severe diarrhoea and dehydration. If left untreated, cholera can be fatal within hours.

Apart from uncollected refuse, the roads are littered with potholes. Residents have expressed concern over the poor service delivery by the councillors.

Mrs Anesu Machaka of Mkoba 19 said they are now used to seeing piling garbage and going for days without water.
Another resident who identified himself as Madzibaba Remmie from Mkoba 15, said they have resorted to burning litter at his house.

He said Gweru City Council is failing to provide services. “Roads have potholes, litter is not collected such that we are now leaving in constant fear of contracting water-borne diseases such as cholera and typhoid. We had outbreaks of diseases in the past,” said Madzibaba Remmie.

Mr Cornelius Selipiwe, director of the Gweru Residents and Ratepayers Association said the local authority is failing to collect garbage because they don’t have the vehicles.

“They are not strategic when it comes to service delivery hence residents are no longer paying their bills,” he said. Council spokesperson Ms Vimbai Chingwaramusee said they are trying their best to ensure they follow the refuse collection schedule across all suburbs.

“We however encourage our residents to have bins to make it easy for refuse collection teams.We have people dumping refuse in storm drains which is something we don’t encourage as a local authority,” she said.

Ms Chingwaramusee said at times council has a challenge of shortage of refuse trucks due to breakdowns.
She said the water crisis was as a result of power outages at Gwenhoro Dam and Range Booster.

“Our engineers are looking at alternative sources of power so that we do not just rely on Zesa,” she said.
Meanwhile, residents are up in arms with the local authority over the proposal to charge for goods and services exclusively in United States dollars.

Council last month proposed to bill for rates and other charges in United States dollars to cushion itself against inflation.
Gweru mayor Councillor Hamutendi Kombayi said council is failing to provide services because of the erosion of the value of the local currency.

“Dear residents, the inter-bank rate versus our billing rate is causing problems as we are failing to provide quality services,” he said.
Gweru Residents Trust chairperson Mr Antony Madzivanyika said the local authority’s decision to charge in US dollar is ridiculous and unacceptable

Local Government expert Dr Vincent Chakunda said there are a number of ways to ensure consistent water supply which include negotiating for a dedicated power line.