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| Runyararo West has experienced heavy-floding this rainy season |
…climate change,
unplanned urban development in Vic Ranch blamed
Moses
Ziyambi
Around 13 regularly-built
houses in Runyararo West suburb face demolition if assessments being done by
City of Masvingo are completed, TellZim News can report.
Possibilities of the
houses getting demolished come after several households experienced
unprecedented flooding which laid to waste several household items.
City of Masvingo Acting
Town Clerk Edward Mukaratirwa told TellZim in an interview that the houses sat
on the confluence of two waterways such that they are becoming increasingly
vulnerable to many previously-unforeseen factors some of them related to
climate change.
“We are making our
assessments on the possibility of relocating those families to safer ground.
There has been a lot of flooding and those families lost all their furniture as
a result. The houses are located on the confluence of two waterways and a
solution has to be found as a matter of urgency,” said Mukaratirwa.
He acknowledged that
the houses were built regularly with council approval but many adverse factors
had later come into play over the years.
“The houses have been
there for many years and nothing of this magnitude had happened to them. But
due to climate change-related factors and the increase in the amount runoff
from the many rooftops that came up in Victoria Ranch, those houses now
vulnerable,” said Mukaratirwa.
He promised that
council would pay commensurate compensation to all families affected should a
resolution to demolish their houses be made as is widely expected.
“We would definitely
find alternative accommodation for them. It is our duty as a responsible local
authority to make sure that corrective measures are not implemented with
disregard to the welfare of residents. The people affected would therefore be
provided with alternative living spaces that are safer from adverse weather
conditions,” Mukaratirwa said.
From the mid-200s, thousands
of homes sprouted on Victoria Ranch, an old cattle farm on the south-western
edge of Masvingo city, as ruling party-connected land barons took advantage of
government’s antipathy to opposition-controlled urban councils to irregularly sell
vast tracts of state land to desperate home-seekers.
There are barely any social
services provided in Victoria Ranch which lies adjacent to Runyararo West.
The land barons – despite pocketing
millions of dollars from the sale of state land – now seek to transfer
responsibility to the struggling Masvingo City Council which never benefitted from the
land sales bonanza.
