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Mnangagwa laments dysfunctional local authorities

by Staff reporter
22 Oct 2023 at 04:17hrs | Views
President Mnangagwa has expressed concern over the deteriorating service delivery in opposition-led local authorities, particularly the recurring outbreaks of diarrhoeal diseases like cholera. He emphasized that this poor social service delivery record needs to be addressed urgently.

The government has initiated a comprehensive program, including the mapping of 35,000 villages across the country. This program aims to ensure that every village has access to clean, safe, solar-powered borehole water sources, complemented by community nutritional gardens. This nation-wide initiative, expected to be completed within a year, is intended to combat cholera outbreaks and improve the nutritional well-being of all communities. It is part of the Integrated Rural Development Strategy, aligned with the national Vision 2030.

President Mnangagwa lamented the inadequate development of modern amenities and infrastructures to provide clean drinking water, efficient reticulation, and waste management systems in urban areas. He attributed the decay of towns and cities to what he described as gross maladministration by opposition-controlled local authorities. Clean water is often unavailable or inconsistently supplied, and services such as garbage collection and sewer maintenance are frequently dysfunctional.

The President highlighted the importance of upgrading the backbone infrastructure for water supply and reticulation in urban areas, emphasizing that the water supply crises in most cities and towns are not due to a lack of water bodies but are a result of inefficient or outdated water conveyancing systems. President Mnangagwa stressed that the lasting solution to chronic cholera outbreaks lies in improving service delivery rather than solely relying on healthcare interventions.

He expressed his concern that dysfunctional local authorities are undermining the government's goal of leaving no one or no community behind, especially in terms of water investments like Lake Gwayi-Shangani and Kunzvi Dam. President Mnangagwa praised the efforts to ensure all local authorities become functional and responsive to residents' public health needs.

Additionally, he mentioned that Bindura University of Science Education is producing chemicals for water treatment, showing progress in addressing the water quality issue.

Source - The Sunday News