Opinion / Letters
Open letter to Bulawayo City Council
04 Sep 2015 at 10:38hrs | Views
An open letter to the city council from the Matabeleland Concerned Residents Association (MACRA) and other organizations :
We the citizens of Matabeleland come together to present our concerns over the City Council of Bulawayo's decision to install prepaid water meters.
First and foremost, is the City Council aware of the high unemployment rate in this country?
Enough is enough!
After 2million jobs have been destroyed and the number of civil servants cut by half and 200 000 teachers awaiting to be layed off, how will those families survive?
Basing on the above facts, who will afford to pay for these meters?
An average working citizen owes the council an average of $300 on unpaid water bills, the water meter is worth $250 also to be settled by the rate payer who already is servicing the current water debt and most probably the ZESA debt, on average this person takes home $400 at most, less bills, less, transport, less food, less school fees the list is endless!
It is also a health hazard, cholera amongst other water borne diseases will over run the already struggling City Council.
Has the council considered what these after effects combined with the other problems already existing bring to the already struggling nation?
Hear our cries, hear our pleas, we the people of Matabeleland say NO! to this senseless proposition.
Kind regards
The Matabeleland Concerned Residents Association and other Affected and Supportive Organizations.
We the citizens of Matabeleland come together to present our concerns over the City Council of Bulawayo's decision to install prepaid water meters.
First and foremost, is the City Council aware of the high unemployment rate in this country?
- How does the council expect us to manage and cope under such conditions?
- What about the unemployed who make up 90% of the population?
- Have the pensioners been taken into consideration?
- What about those earning far below poverty datum line?
- What about those in line to lose their jobs?
- What about the disabled, the widows and orphans?
- Who exactly in the country's population is expected to afford those meters?
- Who was considered and put first to benefit in this decision of the installation of pre-paid water meters?
- Does the council take peoples predicaments into consideration?
- Does the government care?
- What happened to the Matabeleland Zambezi water project?
- We all know about the sub aquifer in Nyamandlovu, thats water under ground, we have tanks and underground water. During the government of national unity (G.N.U) there was Mtshabezi water project and it was completed, all in effort to alleviate Bulawayo water problems. We have solved the water problem yet the council is intending to charge exorbitantly to get the commodity simply because they would have taken our water to other provinces and results in us suffering the consequences!
Enough is enough!
After 2million jobs have been destroyed and the number of civil servants cut by half and 200 000 teachers awaiting to be layed off, how will those families survive?
Basing on the above facts, who will afford to pay for these meters?
An average working citizen owes the council an average of $300 on unpaid water bills, the water meter is worth $250 also to be settled by the rate payer who already is servicing the current water debt and most probably the ZESA debt, on average this person takes home $400 at most, less bills, less, transport, less food, less school fees the list is endless!
It is also a health hazard, cholera amongst other water borne diseases will over run the already struggling City Council.
Has the council considered what these after effects combined with the other problems already existing bring to the already struggling nation?
Hear our cries, hear our pleas, we the people of Matabeleland say NO! to this senseless proposition.
Kind regards
The Matabeleland Concerned Residents Association and other Affected and Supportive Organizations.
Source - MACRA
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