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City council to hand over 1 000 stands in Bulawayo

by Staff Reporter
03 Dec 2017 at 08:05hrs | Views
THE Bulawayo City Council will in the next few weeks hand over more than 1 000 stands in different suburbs in the city which were serviced under the Rapid Results Approach (RRA) programme launched in August.

The RRA programme was launched by the Government on 28 August to 5 December with special focus on increasing water and sewer services by 10 percent in urban centres.

Speaking during the RRA programme review meeting at the Small City Hall on Wednesday, council's director of engineering services, Engineer Simela Dube said the council will be able to have more stands ready by the end of the year.

"On servicing of stands we had various schemes we had intended to finish by 5 December, in Emganwini we have not been able to finish that, its only water and sewer that we have been able to make progress on. We still have challenges in water and storm water drainages and resurfacing of that area. We are hoping that the contractor will be able to complete the surfacing of those stands before the end of the year," said Eng Dube.

He said the council has finished servicing 29 stands in Emganwini, 495 in Magwegwe North, 110 in Magwegwe West and 500 in Luveve 5. He added that the council has managed to connect 2 897 houses with water at Hlalani Kuhle/ Garikai houses in Cowdray Park.

"We have managed to connect 2 897 houses with water out of the 3 000 houses that we had targeted and we are hoping to reach our target by the end of the programme. The review was on Thursday last week, I am sure when we do the review tomorrow we would have met that target," said Eng Dube.

In the same area the council has connected 564 stands with sewer out of the 1 000 stands that they had targeted.

On water leaks, the city council reduced water leaks backlog from 890 to 766. Speaking during the same meeting, Town Clerk Mr Christopher Dube lashed out at residents who vandalise sewer lines for the purpose of watering their small gardens.

"May I also note that while work has been in progress with regards to reducing the sewer blockages backlog from 100 to 40 a day, we have noted that there has been serious abuse of the system. This continued misuse of the sewer system may result in council reviewing its policy on urban agriculture in particular near the streams that run in the city. May I encourage residents to desist from abusing the system and infrastructure," said Mr Dube.

He also said the council was being lenient to residents because of the harsh economic situation but would not hesitate to destroying crops if residents continue vandalising the infrastructure. The town clerk said some of the targets were not met within the stipulated period because of foreign currency challenges.

"Some of the targets set would have been completed and achieved had we not faced challenges in procurement of materials that are imported," he said.

Source - Sunday News