Beatific Gumbwanda
Chiredzi Town Council recently confirmed that they are still conducting a comprehensive study on ways to mitigate water challenges in Ward 5 which has gone for decades without the precious liquid.
Speaking at the How Far feedback meeting organized by Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (ZIMCODD) in collaboration with TellZim News at Westwood Lodge, councilors explained the progress they have since made and challenges they are facing as far as service delivery is concerned.
Chiredzi Town Council Vice Chairperson, Ropafadzo Makumire highlighted that water distribution in ward 5 is a thorn in council’s flesh as they are still conducting comprehensive studies on ways to solve the recurring challenge which continues to haunt the oldest location.
“We made promises as council on the way forward to the challenges we were facing as a town and now ZIMCODD and TellZim News are here to check on the progress we have since made in our service delivery through the How Far campaign.
“On the water situation, in ward 5, it is a miracle to have a shower. The ward is a red zone where we are doing a comprehensive study in order to solve the problem but council is procuring some pipes in order to isolate this ward from the main water line as our current water system does not have pressure to fill up ward five which is on higher ground,” said Makumire.
He added that though they are still facing a challenge in ward 5, they have managed to solve the same challenge in wards 2, 7 and 8.
“We managed to construct a direct water line to Makondo 9 (ward 8) and it has been helpful enough as quite a number of households are receiving water though on zonal basis. 85percent of the residents are now having water.
“The upgrade of our water treatment plant requires a lot of money which is beyond our capacity as local authority and for ward 7 we have begun another direct line which is connecting the one at the Lowveld Adventist Primary School which I am sure will help mitigate water challenges in ward 7,” he added.
However, United Chiredzi Residents and Ratepayers Association (UCHIRRA) Advocacy Officer Constance Chikumbo said council was reducing the morale on rate payments by residents as they are taking long to process payments through their biller code.
“During this time, where we are being urged to do business from home, residents no longer opting to pay using the biller code as some are forced to pay twice after failure by local authority to process those payments and this is going to reduce council’s income,” said Chikumbo.
Ward 7 Councilor Rogers Chikonye chairperson of the Finance Committee also spoke on the budget performance as at June 2021 where they were supposed to collect ZWL$114 187 384.00 but they only collected ZWL$48 000 000.00 with a variance of ZWL$59 000 000.
“Our ZWL$457 000 000.00 budget for 2021 is not performing very well.
As at June 2021, we managed to collect only ZWL$48 000 000.00 instead of ZWL$ 114 187 384 making a variance of ZWL$59 000 000.00. We are still to receive our 2021 Devolution fund of ZWL$97 000 000.00 as well as ZINARA fund for ZWL$22 000 000.00 which we will use to put a tarred road on Magwaza road. We are still waiting for the disbursement of funds from the central government,” said Chikonye.
Council is owed a total of ZWL$81 425 927.39 against their debt of ZWL$15 882 271.00.
