The Sunday News
Sharon Chimenya, Masvingo Correspondent
MASVINGO City Council has expressed concern over rampant vandalism and theft of council infrastructure which has curtailed the local authority’s ability to provide effective service delivery.
In a statement, the local authority appealed to citizens to assist council in reporting cases of vandalism and theft as the some of the equipment such as metal bearings which are being sold to scrap dealers.
“The council infrastructure is being targeted wherein metal bearing components by vandals within the community for resale to scrap metals dealers at the expense of service delivery.
“Communities are being inconvenienced and deprived of basic services such as functional sewer lines due to the theft and vandalism of manhole lids, reposition of grit into sewer systems.
“The environment is also adversely affected as sewer spillage result in environmental disasters which cause contamination of Mucheke River and Lake Mutirikwi which serves as the water source for the whole City of Masvingo,” read part of the document.
The local authority also urged the communities to urgently report such acts of vandalism.
“The replacement costs of the infrastructure are currently estimated into hundreds of thousands of dollars which needs to be funded from council coffers which had not been budgeted. This also hampers the city council in its mandate of providing adequate and sustainable municipal services to clients and diverse socio-economic development opportunities to all stakeholders.”
Last month, council reported that one pump station was down with raw water spilling into Mucheke River which meanders into Lake Mutirikwi that supplies water to the city.
“It was reported that the pump station was down, and all the pumps required wear impellers. Requisitions had been raised but Procurement Management Unit (PMU) were taking long time to procure the spares, hence all the raw sewage was being discharged into Mucheke River.”
Meanwhile, Masvingo City Mayor Councillor Collen Maboke said that the level of vandalism was now worrisome as there was evidence that the manholes were first vandalised and foreign matter thrown into the sewer system.
“Residents that are vandalising manhole lids and when the sewer line is open people throw in foreign objects which affect to flow of sewer affecting residents in the affected areas. We are urging residents that if they don’t report these vandalisms the problem will affect us all.
“We will look into other ways of making the manholes secure and also the situation at the Rujeko pump station has since been rectified,” he said.
