By Beverly Bizeki
Water woes hounding Masvingo City Council might take three years to end, upon financial closure as hinted by the Minister of Local Government and Public Works Winston Chitando at an interaction meeting held at Masvingo City Council on January 22, 2024.
Speaking at the meeting held to review the state of affairs for both Masvingo City Council and Masvingo Rural District Council, in line with a local authority blueprint launched by President Emmerson Mnangagwa, Chitando said one of the gaps that had been identified on the budget review for Masvingo City is the one-third deficit available in terms of water provision.
“Currently Masvingo city is producing two-thirds of the required water in the city but what is important is that the city has come up with a roadmap to close that gap and upon financial closure it will take three years to close that gap and residents will be able to get water 365 days of the year.
“In terms of service delivery there is a gap in waste removal but there is a plan to increase the fleet for waste removal so I would like to complement the city for identifying gaps and coming up with plans for the gaps,” said Chitando.
Chitando also commented on Masvingo City’s compliance with the blueprint launched by President Emmerson Mnangagwa in November last year under the theme ‘A call to action, No compromise on service delivery’ and said Masvingo had its budget reviewed.
“The government would want to see every local authority providing water to residents 365 days a year and would like to see all local authorities providing the correct level of sewer and waste removal services so the meeting with City of Masvingo and Masvingo RDC was to review their state of affairs and how far they have progressed in terms of the implementation of the blueprint,” Chitando said.
Commenting on the water issue, Masvingo United Residents and Ratepayers Alliance Board Chairperson Thomas Mbetu called upon council to look for funding urgently to avoid the challenge escalating as the city is continuously expanding.
“MURRA notes that if we fail to deal with our water challenge in the shortest possible time we will run the risk of having a serious water crisis shortly. This therefore means that there is urgent need to upgrade the water system.
“Our worry as residents is there is a delay in attending to the water problem in the city because Masvingo City Council said it may take up to three years to resolve the water challenge again on condition that they get funding for the project.
“We call upon Masvingo City Council to prioritize looking for funding in the shortly possible time to resolve this water challenge because the more we delay the more the challenge will get bigger due to the growing city population and the expansion of housing construction in the city,” said Mbetu.
Chitando also commended both councils for having both their accounts audited.
Masvingo’s water challenges are a result of the need to complete the water augmentation phase two project which will also pump another 30 megalitres to give a total of 60 megalitres to be able to meet the city’s water requirements.
Masvingo Ward 8 councilor Richard Musekiwa also pleaded with the parent ministry to ensure that councils get funding for road rehabilitation on time so they can be able to plan accordingly.
