Bulawayo councillors have said residents are contributing to the city’s persistent sewer blockages by dumping foreign objects, including clothes, utensils, sanitary wear and sand, into drainage systems.
Ward 18 councillor, Felix Madzana, raised this concern during the latest Full Council meeting, saying efforts to address the city’s sewer challenges should also focus on changing residents’ behaviour.
“The bigger challenge we have with sewers, apart from dilapidated pipes, is residents who throw things into the drain pipes,” the councillor said.
“When you go to places where there are sewer works, you will be disappointed to find pieces of clothes, utensils, sanitary wear and heaps of sand. If we address this, we may avoid a huge chunk of our problems.”
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Madzana’s comments come as the city continues to grapple with recurring sewer blockages, with ageing infrastructure and limited resources placing pressure on the local authority’s ability to respond to faults.
He said while dilapidated pipes remained a major challenge, preventing residents from putting inappropriate materials into the sewer system could significantly reduce the number of blockages requiring repairs.
Ward 13 councillor, Susan Sithole, questioned the continued reliance on contractors to undertake sewer repairs, arguing the council should strengthen its own capacity by repairing its vehicles and acquiring the necessary equipment.
“Why can’t we focus on fixing our own cars and getting our equipment to ensure that we can fix our own sewer challenges?” she asked.
Sithole said the amount spent on contractors could instead be invested in the council’s own capacity.
“The money we spend paying contractors is a lot. In the long run these contractors will have more resources to fix these problems for us, while we continue relying more on them,” she said.
Ward 16 councillor, Greater Gumede, also raised concerns over the manner in which some sewer repairs were carried out in Luveve, saying contractors were sometimes fixing sections of sewer lines while leaving other sections unattended.
“The challenge we have in Luveve is contractors were fixing some of the pipes but leaving other pipes unattended. The ones unattended would then start blocking again,” she said.
Gumede said residents who raised the issue with contractors were told they were only working according to instructions received, proposing that contractors be allowed to work on entire sewer lines rather than isolated sections to prevent recurring blockages.
“Would it be possible for the contractors, when they come, to be given an allowance to work on an entire line of pipes so that we avoid having problems in places that would have already been fixed?” she asked.
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