Pelandaba West residents decry prolonged sewer blockages

Pelandaba West residents in Bulawayo are living with raw sewage flowing around their homes following prolonged sewer blockages which they say the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) has failed to address despite repeated reports.

Residents said several households were affected by sewer overflows at the same time, raising fears of a potential public health crisis.

“It’s been over a week now since we reported our challenge, but Council hasn’t attended to our reports,” said one resident.

Nylon Gatsheni, a resident leader in Pelandaba West Phase 2, confirmed that several households were affected by the blockages.

“About five houses had a sewer blockage at the same time. A report was made, but the local authority hasn’t attended,” he said.

Gatsheni said residents had also tried to engage their local councillor but had received little assistance.

With no immediate intervention from the council, residents dug a trench to divert the overflowing sewage away from their homes.

“The trench that was dug by the residents is not helping. Bulawayo City Council is letting the ratepayers down. This will just lead to a cholera outbreak,” he said.

Ward 13 Councillor Felix Madzana said the council’s engineering department had cited a shortage of service trucks as one of the major reasons for delays in responding to sewer blockages.

“In my ward, it’s mostly Pelandaba West and Pumula East which are affected,” he said.

Madzana said he had previously proposed that individual wards be allowed to purchase their own service trucks using ward retention funds to improve response times.

“I once proposed in one of the full council meetings that they be allowed to buy their own trucks using ward retention so that they have trucks to cover specific wards,” he said.

He also questioned why Pelandaba West, a relatively new residential area, was already experiencing serious sewer infrastructure problems.

“The other problem is with the way the areas were serviced. Pelandaba West is a new area and you wouldn’t expect it to have serious challenges as of now, but it’s already having more challenges than even old locations,” he said.

Madzana, however, said some sewer blockages were also caused by residents disposing of inappropriate materials into the sewer system.

“A lot of times, things like towels, T-shirts, Pampers and lots of things are removed. These are the challenges, but we keep fighting to have the issue sorted on time,” he said.