TellZim reporter
Masvingo Urban councillors have expressed concern over little progress on the legacy Mucheke Trunk Sewer project saying the resolutions city fathers have passed concerning the project are now more than developments on the ground.
Speaking during a full council meeting held on September 26, 2022 at the Civic Centre, Ward 5 Councillor Daniel Mberikunashe said it is disheartening to compare the number of resolutions that council has passed towards the project with the actual work done on the ground.
“Looking at works on the trunk sewer project, one can actually see that the recommendations passed towards the project have been repeated and every time the matter is brought before the committee, similar issues keep on recurring. Taking a look on the ground, one would realize that nothing meaningful is obtaining,” said Mberikunashe.
His sentiments were echoed by ward 7 councillor Richard Musekiwa who asked council management to provide feedback on the resolution earlier on passed that tasked the finance department to approach the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development concerning disbursement of delayed devolution funds.
“Last time when this issue was brought to our attention, we discussed something to do with funding of the project and we agreed to send a delegation led by the finance director (Dannister Jori) to go to Harare. I am not even aware of the position we are at, but we can all see it goes back to issue of funds.
“The other challenge is that despite the late disbursement of the allocated funds, the project would also be affected by the rainy season. Also when council intends to construct bridges, the pipes would have to be shifted again and that means the 78 percent progress we are talking about would be reversed a bit,” said Musekiwa.
Responding to the issue, Town Clerk Engineer Edward Mukaratirwa said management had already made the necessary applications needed and are just awaiting the release of the funds from the Treasury into their coffers.
“Like we said during the last full council meeting (August), we have already submitted all the relevant paper work to the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works but now we are waiting for the ministry of finance to respond. Officials at the ministry of finance acknowledged receiving our documents and are now waiting for their response,” said Eng. Mukaratirwa.
The trunk sewer project whose works have spanned over more than a decade is yet to be completed with financial challenges hindering progress.
