Beverly Bizeki
Masvingo City residents have urged the newly elected councilors to work towards putting to an end perennial water challenges in the city as a top priority ahead of their five year term in office on September 21, 2023.
Speaking at a post-election review engagement meeting organized by Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ) at Mucheke Hall, Masvingo United Residents and Ratepayers Association (MURRA) Spokesperson Godfrey Mutimba said that the new council had a mandate to provide water in the city.
“We expect the new leadership to make the perennial water shortages challenges their chief priority in their five year plan. Residents have endured massive water shortages over the past decade with no solution in sight and we feel council should make sure the challenge is addressed once and for all.
“Residents spend the whole day without running water from taps and water is only available in the wee hours of the day for only three to four hours of the day then it vanishes. Council officials have reiterated that the shortages have been caused by the boom in urban population against the capacity of about 35 mega litres when we need 48 mega litres to fully service the booming population in the city,” said Mutimba.
“We cannot continue to set alarms to wake up at 0300 hours to fetch water before it vanishes into the thin air, we cannot accept that so this is a challenge to the newly elected council this is the first priority,” said Mutimba.
Mutimba also urged the new council to finish up projects that have since been started saying some of them were older than certain councilors.
“Council should also prioritize finishing up projects that have long been started, there are projects that were started about a decade ago but are yet to be completed yet we are seeing the coming in of councilors and mayors with not much progress on these projects,” he said.
Mutimba also applauded the improvement in the composition of councilors saying there were more women than in the previous years so they can tackle issues concerning women and youths.
“We now have more female councilors and we applaud the development so we expect that these women will also address challenges that women experience in service delivery as we know that women bear the brunt of poor service delivery.
“When we do not have water it is women who go to fetch water at the boreholes, if refuse is not collected in time it is women who have to make a plan to dump the refuse somewhere which is not acceptable.
“It is also women who bear the brunt of waking up in the wee hours of the day to put their bins outside for refuse collection around the same time they fetch water so we think that the increase of women in council chambers will also help to address several issues that women face in the provision of service delivery,” he added.
The Masvingo City Deputy Mayor Daniel Mberikunashe who was representing council said they have taken note of the concerns by residents and would work towards addressing them.
