The Sunday News
Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
LOCAL authorities have been rapped for poor planning and collecting residents’ money yet neglecting to provide the services that they should, leading to a situation where people’s houses flood.
The concerns were raised following the recent rains that pounded some parts of the country in a weakened tropical storm where a number of houses flooded. Most of these house were on wetlands. An incidence report by the Civil Protection Unit (CPU) called on local authorities to play a complementary role in preventing disasters and their impacts through a cautious planning.
Acting Director of the CPU Mr Nathan Nkomo said there were reports of flooding of houses in Bulawayo, Beitbridge, and Masvingo provinces which he said have become a perennial issue that needs an urgent and permanent solution from local authorities.
“I received that report of areas in Bulawayo where houses were flooding, areas like Pumula, Pelandaba West, Cowdray Park and Nketa. This is not new, it is a result of failure to clean storm drains by local authorities as well as building on wetlands. In places like Old Pumula it is a result of the type of materials used to construct the houses that is causing the flooding,” said Mr Nkomo.
As for Cowdray Park, he said it was a settlement that was in the spotlight and the Government was still trying to re-organise it, regularise it, and provide basic amenities for the community but stressed that it was vital that the local authority looked at the mentioned areas that were experiencing flooding to identify other solutions to curb the problem besides relocation as a first option.
The CPU said the issues around the safety of communities lied not only in their hands but it was also in the mandate of local authorities in those particular areas.
“The local authority in Bulawayo has a role to play, that authority has a City Planning Department, with experts to see how best some issues are resolved from that point of view. If you look at Beitbridge and Masvingo too, year in and year out we hear of the same challenge of flooding when the rainy season starts, that is a problem.
We need a final solution to that perennial problem,” he added.
Mr Nkomo slammed local authorities who collect money from ratepayers but do not offer solutions when disasters strike.
“Local authorities in these said areas collect rates from their clients but fail to protect and secure the properties of those ratepayers when they experience flooding.
Government cannot address that matter when there is a local authority that has to find a local solution to those unique challenges. Local authorities are closer to the communities and need to swiftly act on some of these issues, however, it is not like we are divorced from their efforts, we do come in and assist affected communities on humanitarian grounds when there is a need, and we do not abandon them,” he said.
Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa)
He highlighted that some areas in Matabeleland South province were affected by the rains with a community in Gwanda district having been marooned for a whole week. A number of houses in Gwanda’s Ward 7, Ward 2 and Enyandweni Ward were destroyed while six out of eight classrooms had roofs blown off at Matshiya Primary School. In Beitbridge Zezani High School, Zezani Clinic and Zezani Police Station had part of their building’s roofs blown off.
The CPU also sent out a warning to alluvial miners to move away from river beds as dams will be spilling.
“We saw the statistics of dam levels from the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa), soon dams will be opened to allow water out to protect dam walls from collapsing as they ease pressure, so those miners should just be careful,” he added. -@nyembeziMu
