Ward 20 residents in Bulawayo have urged the local authority to break down the budget to the ward level to enable them to trace developments within their wards.
The local authority is conducting its 2024 budget review meetings in different wards.
During the Ward 20 budget consultation meeting held Sunday at Mgoqo Primary School, resident Jabulani Sadoma requested that the Council reduce their budget to ward-level performance.
“I have a question for the council. Since we are sitting here reviewing the budget, how feasible is it, for the council as technocrats, to reduce your budget to the ward level so that when we come here, we review our ward budget and track developments in our ward?” he said.
The residents agreed that their top priorities should be water, sewer, health, education, public lighting, roads, social amenities, fire and ambulance services, refuse removal, housing, and civic protection.
Another resident, Bongani Khumalo, asked about the local authority’s efforts regarding sand scooping in the city’s supply dams.
“What is the council doing? Are they scooping the dams? Because if we talk about constructing another dam, it will be a different story. Our dams need to hold plenty of water. We are being told water is depreciating, but sand is filling up those dams. The local authority has no time to scoop the dams,” he said.
Another resident questioned why the local authority opens water for them at night.
“Most of the time we don’t get water. We hear other people saying they received water while we wouldn’t have received any,” he said.
In response, a BCC official from Town Planning, Sehlile Ndlovu, said they would ensure that next time they have a budget review meeting, they include a ward budget.
“I think we will ask that when we return, we have a ward budget so that we know how much is collected in the ward and we know issues about the ward. We will ask the accounts team so that when we come next time, we talk at the ward level,” she said.
Ndlovu also said the local authority would increase the period they open water for the residents.
“I think we have to note that issue so that we increase the period. We don’t open the water at night, but it now depends on where the area is. In some areas, they receive water in the afternoon while some areas receive water at night, so we will look at reviewing the times of closing and opening so that everyone gets a chance,” she said.
Meanwhile, she also clarified that siltation in the city’s supply dams has been removed.
“We have many programs at the dams. We are happy that we have many partners assisting us when it comes to water. People believe that our dams have siltation, but all the siltation has been removed, and there are many rehabilitation projects. You saw in other areas there are pipelines which we are duplicating so that there may be many pipelines leaving the dams,” said Ndlovu.
