Sewerage overwhelms GV residents

More than 100 residents in the high-density suburb of Glen View have endured flowing raw sewage on their streets for nearly three weeks with no action coming from the Harare City Council (HCC)’s water department.

The sewer pipes reportedly burst last month, and up to now there has not been any action by HCC, demonstrating the city fathers’ high degree of criminal neglect of duty.

In a statement, the Harare Residents’ Trust (HRT) said it has noted with concern the apparent lack of action by the council to attend to this potential source of disease outbreaks.

“Ratepayers’ interest must supersede the interests of incompetent officials who want to be worshipped first before they do their paid work. The HRT is
urging the responsible authorities to act swiftly to avoid detrimental effects to public health,” said HRT.

HRT said it holds the municipality responsible for any deaths or sicknesses that might arise from delays in responding to the sewerage burst.

“Residents’ repeated reports to the HCC’s Glen View District Offices have been met with excuses ranging from having no fuel, lack of vehicles or the responsible people are not around to attend to the residents’ plea,” said the trust.

“This is so unbecoming of the Harare Water leadership who have always acted so professionally in previous reported cases. According to Glen View 2 Residents Committee secretary, Mukai Murwisi, their repeated reports on the sewerage situation have yielded no positive results.

“They strongly suspect that the City of Harare workers are expecting the residents to contribute money and pay some of the responsible officials in order to unblock the sewerage and repair it,” said HRT in its statement.

Residents are charged $4,60 monthly for sewerage.

They also pay a monthly charge of about $4,50 per household for sewer reticulation.

“This is daylight robbery because they collect money for a service which they are not offering,” said HRT.

Free flowing raw sewage is a health time bomb and a serious public health threat because residents, especially children, are exposed to the sewerage on a daily basis increasing their vulnerability to typhoid, cholera and other potentially life-threatening diseases such as trachoma, a disease of the eye that causes permanent blindness.

In addition, wells and boreholes that are dotted around the suburb are getting contaminated through seepage and human waste attracts flies and other disease vectors.Daily News.