Mberengwa roads turned into gullies after heavy rains- Zhou

Progressive Teachers Unions of Zimbabwe Dr Takavafira Zhou has warned that most of the roads in Mberengwa have become gullies after heavy rains hit the area leaving quite a trail of destruction.

"Heavy rains a disaster for Mberengwa District. I recently went home on the 28 of January and was there until 30th of January. Sons and daughters of Mberengwa, the heavy rains that have been pounding our beloved Mberengwa are wrecking disaster in Mberengwa. Unprecedented rains have pounded Mberengwa over the few days leaving a trail of destruction and havoc in the beloved area of our birth," Zhou said.

"The roads have become gullies and flooded rivers, and all low lying bridges have been destroyed. It took me six hours of driving yesterday to cover a distance of 40km from Chegato to Bvute, as more often than not I had to stop and engage villagers to assist in putting stones on a former low lying bridge or fragile ground. Navigating across the gullies, destroyed bridges, and rivers was an arduous task."

He said  of course he later learnt he was the only one to have tried the mission impossible of plying that route.

"The rains have destroyed roads and therefore making it very difficult and impossible for kombis and buses to ply the several routes in Mberengwa. Worse still school pupils have long ceased to go to school in some areas, as rivers such as Chimwe, Nuanetsi (Mwanezi), Gambure, Mundi, Nyororo, Mutsime and many other small tributaries have made it difficult for school pupils to navigate across," he said.

"For the first time since 1975, today water was flowing over Tandavarai bridge on Nuanetsi river, near Jeka hospital. Crops have either been eroded by the heavy storms or deprived of nutrients and turned yellowish at a time we are hearing government officials peddling falsehood of a bamper harvest. Izhara kwakana. Zvitubu (spring water from ground) have become so incessant in many villages in Mberengwa. Huts, houses, schools, clinics and toilets are collapsing and putting the life of people in danger."

He said at a time when those with access to the public ear have declared roads in towns a public disaster, the plight of the people of Mberengwa that is worse off than the people in Harare must be amplified.

"A terrible disaster in looming in Mberengwa, yet there is complicity of silence from government officials. Cry the beloved people of Mberengwa, for we are not second class citizens to be treated as if we are sub-human. We are also Zimbabweans and deserve better treatment by the government," he said.