Chitungwiza sewer reticulation under scrutiny
Story by Cordelia Ngara
THE government has moved in to save the situation in Chitungwiza where water supply and sewer reticulation had become a perennial challenge.
This comes after the unveiling of equipment that is expected to improve service delivery in the town.
The Ministry of Local Government and Public Works in conjunction with Chitungwiza Municipality, led by outgoing Mayor Councillor Kiven Mutimbanyoka, has unveiled construction equipment, water and sewer reticulation pipes which are already benefiting residents of the dormitory town.
“We are happy here in Chitungwiza. Sewage has been a problem for the past 4 years, but now the council under Mayor Mutimbanyoka fixed the issue and now we have proper pipes for sewerage. We even have boreholes for drinking clean water. We are indeed happy,” said one of the residents.
Another said, “We are grateful for the work the council has been doing here in Chitungwiza. I am a resident and here we have been having the same problem of bursting and blocked sewage for the past years, but now they have fixed the issue. We are grateful.”
The local authority’s Projects Manager Mr Witness Govero says rehabilitation of the sewer reticulation system is underway and will be completed in the next few weeks.
“It’s been years here struggling with issues of sewage. There’s siltation, the sand is blocking sewer pipes taking space that water should take. In the past months, we would come and fix the issue but now we are replacing old pipes with new ones to get away with the problem for the next so many years. We started three weeks ago and we expect to be done in the upcoming weeks,” he said.
Outgoing Mayor, Councillor Mutimbanyoka highlighted some of the success stories of his tenure.
“I’m standing next to a tipper truck we recently bought. These are the works of an outgoing mayor, so we managed to buy 2 tipper trucks, a compacter roller,4 service vehicles and 1 grader. All these are going to benefit the people of Chitungwiza in that all unattended roads are going to be attended to. I am happy for the time I was given to serve the people of Chitungwiza as acting mayor. All these have been achieved in 1 year since the building was renovated, we computerised all council departments to avoid corruption.
“We stopped the selling of stands inside the council premises, we bought furniture for all council departments. We are currently laying new pipes for the sewer system, and patching roads. I hope the new council will continue and carry over from where I left. I’ll be at the disposal of the new council,” he said.
Chitungwiza town council has been struggling with service delivery for the past decade with no clean water, proper sewer system and roads, resulting in the government intervening under the Presidential Boreholes Programme to ensure the availability of the precious liquid to residents.
