By Beverly Bizeki

MASVINGO – As council continues to lose income through non-revenue water, councilors have suggested that the local authority puts effort into providing water metres for residents with non-functional water meters to reduce losses.
It was noted in Public Works and Planning Committee minutes dated April 8, 2024, that non-revenue water for March 2024 translated to US$384 135. 60 where residents were urged to buy water meters.
“The committee deliberated at length on the need to continuously monitor strategies implemented to reduce non-revenue water. It was reported that council had been in a revolving scheme for stuck water meter replacement and residents were also encouraged to buy water meters to replace stuck ones to pay for actual water consumption,” read part of the minutes.
Speaking in an interview, Ward 10 Councilor Sengerayi Manyanga said council was supposed to chip in by providing affordable metres for the residents.
“The issue of nonfunctional meters is tricky. Our debit bill is increasing because of nonfunctional meters those with stuck meters are either being undercharged or overcharged because these are estimates. Some of these people are the ones selling water because nonfunctioning water charges are constant hence they can sell millions of litres.
“As council we must make a plan and at least consider these nonfunctional meters to be council property and replace them to get accurate water charges because we might be charging less or more. Those with nonfunctional meters must be charged more so they can approach council for functional meters to get accurate readings,” said Manyanga.
Commenting on allegations that some residents were reluctant to replace stuck meters because they were in the business of selling water as they are going to be undercharged, Masvingo City Mayor and Ward 2 Councilor Alec Tabe said it could be true and was resulting in errors in billing.
“Council owning up water meters could be the way to go because most property owners are reluctant to replace their meters yet part of the non-revenue water is accounted for through underestimations for people with stuck meters or non-functional meters. Some property owners are reluctant to replace their meters because they might be getting undercharged. This is why we think it might be true that some of the people with stuck meters are supplying fresh water to residents in areas like Victoria Ranch.
“We urge residents to however report and replace their meters in time whenever they discover that it has become stuck or not functioning to avoid being overcharged,” said Tabe.
Tabe further said council was working on minimizing time council takes to fix disruptions in water supply to avoid council losing more revenue through water supplied to residents.
“On areas that might incur disruptions in water supply, we are working on reducing timeframes to fix the problems because the water that we supply water with bowsers is not billed and this also adds to non-revenue water,” said Tabe.

By Beatific Gumbwanda

CHIREDZI – Zimbabwe is set to benefit an influx of tourists to its Gonarezhou National Park, Malilangwe Conservation Trust and Save Valley Conservancy through bridging the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area (GLTCA) that is shared between three National Parks involving Gonarezhou National Park (Zimbabwe), Kruger National Park (South Africa) and Limpopo National Park (Mozambique).
With political borders rarely respecting ecological systems, the three Southern African countries (Zimbabwe, South Africa and Mozambique) signed an International treaty in 2002 in Xai Xai, Mozambique that gave birth to the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, which aims to straddle the three countries political borders while joining some of the established wildlife areas into a huge conservation area of around 35 000km2 which is managed as an integrated unit across the three nations.
Giving a presentation during a Chiredzi Rural District Council (CRDC) Full Council meeting recently, GLTCA National Coordinator Robert Nyamini said there were plans to open up crossing points between parks in the conservation area for easy travel of tourists from one park to another without too much hustles.
“We have plans to open up crossing point between parks in order for tourists to cross from one park into another without going through border posts which is stressful and time consuming.
“Most of our tourists do not have time to travel from one political border to another just to access a conservation area which is just across. This is going to be beneficial to Zimbabwe as Kruger National Park receives a million tourists a year as compared to Gonarezhou’s 15 000 tourists per annum,” he said.
Nyamini also spoke of the investment opportunities involved in the GLTCA in the Sengwe Chipise Corridor aimed at benefitting the communities surrounding the wildlife corridor when the bridge opens.
“The Sengwe Chipise Corridor has been benefitting animals since the formation of the GLTCA in 2002 and there is need to rope in the communities surrounding to benefit from this arrangement. We are consulting with necessary institutions to map the projects we can do for those affected during the formation of the corridor,” added Nyamini.
CRDC Chairperson Aspect Mashingaidze said there was a huge investment opportunity in the Sengwe Chipise Corridor, which various investors need to tap into.
“Ever since the formation of the GLTCA back then, communities have never experienced its benefits, but with your presentation, there seem to be vast investment opportunities by different investors as well as the communities around. “These include tented camps and development of the Malipati business center thereby creating vast employment opportunities for the locals like what we are doing at Bosman tented camps,” said Mashingaidze.
This park will provide jobs and opportunities to generate revenue for thousands of local people thereby improving the lives of the rural communities who will in turn further contribute towards biodiversity conservation by demonstrating the economic as well as social advantages to be achieved through conservation as an alternative and viable land use option.
The conservation area measures almost 100 000 km2 with key features including the Limpopo National Park which has a one million hectare park in Mozambique bordering with Kruger National Park bounded by both the Limpopo and Olifants rivers.
Kruger National Park has an estimated area of 18 989 square kilometers in the Southern side and Gonarezhou National Park with a 5 053 square kilometers in Zimbabwe. There is also Makuleke region, a region in South Africa bordering Kruger and Gonarezhou, Banhine and Zinave National Parks in Mozambique, Massingir and Corumana areas in Mozambique, Malilangwe and Save Valley Conservancies in Zimbabwe.
The three countries’ national parks meet at the same point called the ‘Crooks Corner’, which they all share.

By Decide Nhendo

There is a sigh of relief for the Sese Growth Point business community and homesteads in the vicinity of Chivi Central Ward 20 as the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) finally replaced a transformer they had taken for repairs after it had fallen.
Speaking to TellZim News, Chivi Central Ward 20 councilor and businessman Alec Nhundu thanked ZESA for finally heeding their cries saying the local business people and community depended on electricity for various purposes.
“I am happy because Zesa managed to service the transformer and replaced it after four months leaving many businesses and households in the dark.
“The transformer serves Sese Growth Point and over 100 households so it’s good news for the local business people since bars and butcheries depend on electricity,” said Nhundu.
Nhundu said he had been putting effort daily to contact the provincial offices who only gave him excuses and even went further to contact the Ministers’ office as well as the Harare offices.
“From January 17 to April 20 I had been contacting Zesa office in Masvingo and the Minister of State’s office but we only got excuses from ZESA until now when they replaced the transformer,” said Nhundu.
Another Sese business person, Julieth Zihove said she was happy with the development and said business was back to normal since they could now sell cold beer and drinks to customers.
She appealed to ZESA saying since they have been affected by the fault, it could be to their advantage to their businesses if ZESA could spare them sometime when there is load shedding in other areas so they will be able to boost their businesses.
“I am happy with the replacement of the transformer, our businesses are back to life and we can meet our customers’ needs. We however appeal to ZESA to spare us on load shedding to compensate for the time we were in the dark,” said Zihove.
Another business person Jonas Nhengu who is into welding weighed in and said replacement of the transformer had boosted his business as using generator power was costly and not sustainable.
“The replacement of the transformer by ZESA is an advantage to us because we have businesses like welding which requires much power, and using generators as backup was costly but we are back to our normal operations,” said Nhengu.