Bulawayo City Councillors have raised concern at the flowing raw affluent which is now destroying the city’s road infrastructure.
Discussing the state of roads in the city during the full council meeting, the city fathers said unattended sewer bursts have become a threat to the state of the roads in their various wards.
Ward 10 Councillor Sinikiwe Mutanda lamented the failure by council to attend to burst sewers on time.
“Just opposite Entumbane Post Office and Entumbane Pre-School, there is serious burst sewer which has destroyed the road.
“When you look at that road from Entumbane Complex going down to Nhlalo shops, flowing sewer has caused damage to the road,” she said.
Ward 19 Councillor Alderman Clayton Zana also highlighted that there was a sewer leakage that has blocked a road in Pumula and council has not yet attended to it despite an outcry by the residents.
“In Pumula East we have school children from Jairos Jiri. The road in front of the school has been blocked by an open sewer. We approached the roads department but they have not yet responded. That area needs to be declared a state of emergency those children are disabled and need attention when passing through that sewer,” said Ald Zana.
Councillor Donaldson Mabutho who sits in the Town Lands and planning Committee responded to the concerns saying the government had not yet availed funds to repair roads, hence the poor state of roads in the city.
“The problem is that we are operating on a shoestring budget but we will do what we can to repair the roads.”
He said the other challenge resulting in delay on repairing roads was that contractors were now charging in foreign currency.
“For local authorities, contractors demand to be paid in foreign currency.
“The central bank has been approached several times to make sure that they avail those funds to the local urban authorities but up to now, nothing has come to our side but we will do what we can with the little that we have,” he said.
Cllr Mabutho said the government availed $5 million for the refurbishment of roads in Bulawayo.
