Ward 17 Councilor Sikhululekile Moyo has called for the re-engagement of community plumbers to deal with recurring sewer pipe bursts in the city.
The local authority made a call last year inviting community plumbers to come forward in order to assist the local authority to efficiently deal with sewer bursts.
However, only a few people responded to the call as there were stringent requirements including a personal vehicle and plumbing equipment.
Speaking during a full council meeting held last week on sewerage system, Councillor Moyo said the sewer burst pipes continue to be a challenge in the city.
“Sewer bursts continue to be a challenge, we once talked about community plumbers, we realise that we have a shortage of manpower as we have few teams, they do fix but within two minutes there will be a burst again,” she said.
“If we have community plumbers, it would be easier for them to follow up on these continuous bursts, instead of depending on a team that is expected to attend in Nkulumane then come back the following day, so I don’t know how the department can assist us,” said Cllr Moyo.
Bulawayo Mayor Solomon Mguni, however, said the discussion on community plumbers could not move forward as there were concerns about protecting municipal property.
In addition, Deputy Mayor Mlandu Ncube said the community plumbers who came forward had no vehicles.
“Those who came forward said they have no vehicles, but those people will be in their community, we had agreed that we will look at it as they said there was a challenge with the way the advert was put out,” said Clr Ncube.
He said there were concerns on why the community plumbers would need vehicles as they will be from the particular community.
“So, I think we need to relook our advertisements and see what the community has.”
Councilor Ncube said the other challenge when it comes to sewer burst pipes is that the current teams in the local authority take time to attend to faults.
“We are appealing to the committee to take note of sewer blockages inside homes where people stay, and they go for days without fixing. It takes the same time to fix the sewer in the street and those bursts at home, so we are appealing for home sewer bursts to be given priority so that residents stay in a clean environment,” he said.
Councilor Ncube added, “We must be a city which attends to sewer bursts on time not for people to stay in an environment with sewer, we are delaying in attending sewer for example the sewer close to the Public Library in the CBD, that sewer now bursts every week.”
He also said the local authority is no longer spraying chemicals after attending to a burst sewer.
