MP castigates ZINWA and Council over Gwanda water woes

The Member of Parliament for Gwanda Central Edison Gumbo castigated the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) and the Municipality of Gwanda for the water woes that besiege the town.

Speaking at a Gwanda Agenda dialogue at a Hotel in Gwanda yesterday, Gumbo blamed both ZINWA and Council for taking their failures and squabbles on innocent residents. "Whatever the issues are there between ZINWA and Council must not be extended to innocent residents who now have to suffer because of two equally guilty parties who can not solve their administrative problems." Said Gumbo.

"Whatever problems are there between the two, those issues should not affect residents. Residents have a right to water and that right can not be denied by administrative bungles of these two bodies."

Gumbo a former Municipality of Gwanda councillor himself blamed ZINWA for taking advantage of the inexperience of the new councillors and cutting water supplies to push for payment. "Council has always owed ZINWA money and when we were in council we always found compromises with ZINWA and never allowed for water to be disconnected. They are doing this now because they know its a new council with inexperienced councillors and they just want to twist them to get money from council. This would never have happened in our time. ZINWA is being unreasonable, payment arrangements can always be made while residents are being supplied with water." Said the visible upset MP.

While still blaming ZINWA for its arrogance, the MP did not spare council the rode as he accused council of serious financial mismanagement. He said he does not understand how Council would fail to collect its water revenue and pay ZINWA for the water supply regularly. In the same wake Gumbo also blamed residents for also not paying their dues to council there by leaving residents with a difficult position to complain to council from. "You have a right as residents to group together and sue council for service delivery but you can't because you know you owe council and when you try to sue, council will sue you first." He said.

The dialogue which had in the podium former Mayor Lionel Denecker representing the MDC, Councillor Jastone Mazhale representing the MDC T and Honourable Gumbo representing ZANU PF came to an agreement that ZINWA should immediately cede the water treatment plant back to Council. The residents demanded that when council takes over the treatment plant, council must exercise a very high degree of efficiency and professionalism to ensure continuous supply of clean water to the town. Former Mayor Denecker assured residents that council has the capacity and capabilities of running the treatment plant and perform far much better than ZINWA in providing water to the town.

Asked on what Council had done in the meantime to address the water situation, Councillor Mazhale initially indicated that council had paid ZINWA through a direct deposit of $49 000 by Transport and infra structural Development Minister Obert Mpofu to ZINWA. Probed by Honourable Gumbo if the payment is confirmed, Councillor Mazhale shifted to say he could not personally confirm the deposit but that a rumour within council indicates that the payment had been done direct from Mpofu to ZINWA. Council last week sold a stand to Minister Mpofu to raise quick money to pay ZINWA and facilitate reconnection of water supply to the town.

Honourable Gumbo immediately questioned how council would allow for such a transaction to be carried out as it is against financial regulations of local authorities. According to Gumbo, all monies received from sale of stands must go into council's estates account and be used to develop new land. Other council departments can only borrow from the estates account through a council resolution and the money must be paid back to the estates account.

Honourable Gumbo further stated that he hoped that council had followed the right procedure in allocating the said stand as there is a laid down procedure for allocation of stands. The MP closed off by encouraging the residents of Gwanda to come up with serious modalities of coming up with a residents association which will help residents keep check on their representatives and involve residents in developmental issues of the town.