Ward 28 councillor Kidwell Mujuru says the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) is struggling to attend to sewer pipe bursts due to lack of resources.
Engaging residents virtually, Councillor Mujuru said of late, the local authority is failing to cope with the constant sewer bursts.
“Bulawayo City Council (BCC) has had many challenges of late, so hence they are failing to cope with sewer repairs, this is not only a Cowdray Park problem but it is the whole City of Bulawayo,” said Cllr Mujuru.
“Even in other suburbs such as Makhokhoba, we have tarred roads which were degraded due to an unrepaired sewer system which lasted for more than a month with Council failing to repair it. When you go to Nkulumane , Sizinda, Pumula they are all facing the same challenges, it is all over the City of Bulawayo.”
He said most of the time, residents pay their rates using Zimbabwean dollars making it hard for them to access spares in other countries.
“The truth of the matter is that Council is failing to cope, we have limited resources, residents of Bulawayo are paying in RTGS to Bulawayo City Council but for us to get any spares, anything outside the country we need forex so we are now having a challenge as our currency is not at par with forex,” said the Councillor.
He added that at the moment, Cowdray Park has one vehicle used to attend to sewer faults.
“Even if you report sewer faults, I do not take even a minute to forward those faults but the reaction is slow as I have said earlier on that we have challenges. Currently, as we speak, the vehicles servicing Cowdray Park are supposed to be three but we only rely on one car, some have breakdowns, at times we won’t be having diesel, so there are too many challenges to mention,” he said.
“As Council and residents, we ought to put our heads together and come up with a solution because at the moment it is true that in Cowdray Park we are experiencing sewer problems every day.”
Councillor Mujuru also blamed the sub-standard job performed by the contractors in the growing suburb.
“The other thing is that contractors did a shady job and we have challenges to attend to those sewers by those contractors, there is a contract binding. Even when it comes to Hawk Flight, they did a very poor job, those sewers do not discharge to sewer ponds but they discharge in the bush, at the end of the day most sand ends up in the system thus why our sewer burst daily even if Council tries to repair the system blocks again, our contractors did a very short job,” he said.
He added that he is constantly engaging the Council on the matter.
