By Perpetua Murungweni
As the first major rains hit Masvingo recently, Runyararo West flood victims said they are feeling short changed as they are yet to get a permanent solution to their perennial problem.
The residents said they were tired of promises and called for responsible authorities to act and proffer a lasting solution as they fear for a repeat of last year (2023) when they were temporarily sheltered somewhere where they lived in unbearable conditions.
One of the victims, Nomatter Chijaka said council keeps giving them empty promises and doing nothing tangible to help save their situation
“Last week’s heavy rains flooded my house and destroyed most of the property; we have been appealing to council for help but they are doing nothing. Council is giving us fake promises. They promised to relocate us a long time ago, and we were told that there were stands prepared for us but nothing has been implemented so far.
“We plead with council and other stakeholders to do something with our situation. It’s better for council to allocate us stands on a safer place and we will try our best to develop and build houses on our own rather than implementing provisional measures that do not work,” said Chijaka.
Another victim Chipo Chizimba, said they were getting tired of the back and forth with council yet nothing was coming out of it.
“We are tired of empty promises from council, every time rains come, council comes with papers for us to sign promising us stands. When the rain season is gone we don’t see or hear anything from them. Most of our property is being destroyed by water, because every time it rains we have to put our soaked sofas and beds outside so that they will dry, and it’s affecting our wellbeing,” said Chizimba.
Masvingo City Council Ward two Councilor Benson Hwata concurred with the residents and said the only solution to the problem was to relocate the flood victims to a safer place but said the challenge was that council had no stands at the present time.
“These victims are facing the same challenge time and again, but as council we are left with no choice but to relocate the victims. Relocation of the victims is the only permanent solution to this problem. The only thing that is slowing down the process is, we don’t have land so far. We have so far tried widening of the nearby stream and it has reduced the number of flooded houses this time around,” said Hwata.
Masvingo City Council Mayor Alec Tabe said the local authority was trying its best to address the problem and widening the nearby stream was an effort that was proving to be working since council does not have the capacity to build houses for the victims.
“As council we don’t have the capacity to build houses for these victims, but what we can do is to relocate them and give them stands with help from government. This is an intergovernmental project, and we have already engaged with government which should come on board to assist with the national development fund which is meant to assist these victims.
“Last week flash floods did not only affect Davis Mugabe residents but they affected the whole of Masvingo town; they were beyond our control and despite measures we have put in place, people were still affected. The provisional mechanism of widening of the nearby stream worked to some extent. We are thinking of putting a perimeter wall so that when the water reaches where these streams meet, it does not retreat to people’s homes but hit the wall. Another measure we are taking as council is to maintain our drainage system so that water will properly flow,” said Tabe.
However one of the Runyararo West flood victims Julia Makapinya condemned the authority for stream widening initiative saying it did more harm than good.
“The council’s solution worsened our situation, exposing us to runoff coming from both sides. Previously, water only came from the front side of our house where the road transforms into a river during heavy rains, but now it flows into our houses from the back where they widened the stream,” said Makapinya.
To date, five mayors, namely Femius Chakabuda (the late), Hubert Fidze, Collen Maboke, Shantiel Chiwara, though short-lived, and now Alec Tabe, have failed to resolve the problem and the Tabe administration is taking its first step towards addressing the challenge.
The families were allocated stands at the confluence of two small streams in the area and the situation is said to have been worsened by construction activities in Victoria Ranch.
Sources said at the time when the stands were allocated, in the mid-2000s, an engineer who was working at townhouse advised against it, which fell on deaf ears, although he had predicted the impending disaster due to the presence of streams nearby.
