Victoria Falls residents in BD46, Moringa, are lamenting poor service delivery in their area, stating that the local authority has been turning a deaf ear to their concerns.
The residents raised such issues as inadequate water supply, lack of sewer reticulation systems, unavailability of a bus terminus and lack of youth rehabilitation centres.
A resident who spoke to CITE and asked not to be named, said these issues have been persistent for decades and despite their pleas to the local authority, not much has been done to improve their situation.
“We do not have water here. We can go for almost two weeks without running water. The council brings water using bowsers. That water is not entirely safe. We have tried to probe the council to improve our water situation, but they seem not to be keen,” the resident said.
“We also have the situation of sewer systems; people use open spaces to relieve themselves. Some have septic tanks. For those who have septic tanks, we pleaded that we are provided with the honey sucker truck to clean septic tanks in the area but that again fell on deaf ears.”
The resident added that they have challenges with water meters in the area. He said when one buys a water meter it must be registered with the council for a fee which is beyond the reach of many.
“We are required to pay US$15 to the council to register the water meters. The meters are not durable, they constantly malfunction, and they do the council has a fixed charge of $27 to fix them. That is too much for residents,” he said.
The resident further highlighted that the area has no bus terminus which is close to the people.
“We use the Chinotimba rank, which is far from our homes. The route we use to go home is not safe. There is a bushy area in-between where people get mugged. They always promise to open our rank in moringa but to date there is nothing.”
CITE had access to an audio where the councillor of the area, Cllr Edmore Zhou, explained to the residents that work was underway to address water and sewer reticulation challenges.
“I personally advocated for reservoirs at Mkhosana. They are being constructed as we speak. Once that is done all this will be a thing of the past. According to our plan, if nothing changes, these same pipes will also be supplying water to BD46. There was an error that occurred when the development of the area started. We were doing this work on our own, so we realised that the pipes were not laid properly and some of them were the wrong size,” Cllr Zhou explained.
He further noted that the challenge with the sewer reticulation system emanated from the cost of stands as the council could not afford to pay the contractor but it is now being addressed.
“I also advocated for sewer in the area to be set up to BD46 but there are people who pushed that it be stopped because of the cost of the stands. The challenge is when youcan’t afford to pay a contractor. They tell you to do the work yourself,” he said.
“Council is struggling to buy the pumps that are needed. They need about US1.5 million to upgrade the pumping system. We implore you residents to be patient as this work proceeds, very soon all will be rectified.”
Victoria Falls Town Clerk Ronnie Dube dismissed the concerns raised by residents.
“The water taps in Moringa have water. There is no place in Vic Falls which runs without water for more than 24hrs a day. We last deployed a bowser more than 3 months ago when we had an electric breakdown and could not supply water for a day. There are also sewer services in Moringa.” he said.
On the issue of the bus terminus, Dube said the current rank is not yet full and overspilling.
“Which city has a bus rank in every township which is at walking distance? Chinotimba is a walking distance from Mkhosana. The current bus rank is not full and overspilling.”
