Story by Tapiwa Machemedze
A cross-section of farmers in Bindura’s Matepatepa area are unable to deliver critical supplies to their farms following extensive damage to Kamonde Bridge by heavy rains on Thursday night.
While residents are passing through on foot, the bridge is impassable by vehicles, setting back farming efforts as some farmers need to ferry fertilisers and other critical supplies to the Matepatepa farming area.
“There were heavy rains on Thursday going into Friday. The water was powerful from Kamonde River and surrounding higher ground. It converged and failed to dislodge the soil and started eroding the bridge which eventually gave in. Now all the produce from these farms cannot pass through,” a farmer said.
Another added, “The biggest problem is the movement of produce, school children. As farmers, we go to town and buy produce daily. Today, we are likely to receive more rains, so we hope the local authority will urgently intervene before the whole bridge is washed away.”
Bindura Rural District Council engineers assessed the damage and have set in motion repair efforts.
“We have evaluated damage to the bridge and have written to ZINARA to assist us with funding for repairs to be carried out. We have a budgetary allocation that is entitled to us for road maintenance and rehabilitation as a local authority, so we want that allocation to be extended. We need to purchase cement and other materials,” Bindura Rural District Council’s chief executive officer Mr Doesn’tmatter Kapondoro said.
Meanwhile, artisanal miners who pan for gold at nearby Mazowe River have been blamed for contributing to the damage of the bridge by digging up a weighbridge that was eventually swept away by Mazowe River.
