Byo residents attack city council for disconnecting water

BULAWAYO residents have attacked the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) for resorting to disconnecting water to force residents to settle their bills, saying the exercise was tantamount to murder.

According to the latest council report, the local authority has embarked on a massive water disconnection exercise that may see thousands of Bulawayo residents spending Christmas without water, in a bid to recover $61 million that it is owed by residents.

The exercise that is probably the most widespread in history, is being carried out even over weekends.

In separate interviews, residents' representatives admitted that people should clear their bills, but said council should get its "shambolic" billing system in order to encourage them to pay.

They called on Government to come up with a programme to help them deal with mounting bills.

The chairperson of the Bulawayo United Residents Association (Bura), Mr Winos Dube, said council would be guilty of murder if they cut off water to residents over the festive season.

"Residents should definitely pay up, but I think council should come up with an alternative way to compel them to do so.

"Water is life and if you deny someone water, it is the same as killing them. We would then have a murderous council. This would be a strain on poor ratepayers who are struggling to feed their families," said Mr Dube.

He said residents could be reluctant to pay in some cases because council was failing to get its priorities right.
"Their priorities are all wrong. How can council allocate $2 million to buy luxury cars for their directors when council has no money? They should have waited until revenue collection had improved. It does not show that they have people's concerns at heart," said Mr Dube.

He said if council continued disconnecting water, residents would be forced to use the bush as toilets, adding that it would cause water-borne diseases  that would further stretch council's meagre resources as they have the primary responsibility of dealing with epidemics.

He said the fact that almost every household  in the city was in arrears, showed that the problem needed a solution at Government level.

"Politicians must sit down and look at this issue. It is not that people do not want to pay, they simply cannot afford.  The Government should overhaul the salary system so that it is in tandem with the cost of living," he said.

Mr Dube said council had to be humane and stop water cuts because residents were not only grappling with council bills, but had other pressing expenses that included Zesa bills and rent.

The chairperson of the Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association, Mr Reason Ngwenya, said council had to clear the air about exorbitant bills that it sent to residents on dollarisation in 2009.

"That is when most people started struggling with bills. A majority of residents simply gave up on paying and their bills have been accumulating ever since. Council said it would refund residents for overcharging them but up to today most of us have not seen the refunds," said Mr Ngwenya.

He said while it was important for residents to pay, it was equally important for council to be transparent and ensure that all accounts started at zero when the conversion to multi-currency was done.

"They should not disconnect water because it would be unfair to ratepayers who are already overburdened. We will continue to encourage people to pay but council must play its part by settling the high bills issue," he said.

Last year, the Minister of Local Government, Urban and Rural Development, Dr Ignatius Chombo, intervened at the last minute and ordered local authorities not to disconnect water to residents over the festive period.