By Auxilia Katongomara
The Bulawayo City Council has re-opened West Park Cemetery for burials a few months after it was shut down after burial space was said to have run out.
The local authority has now decided to utilise a piece of land that had been reserved for use by funeral parlours.
The latest council minutes state that the piece of land has burial space that would last for about two years.
The acting director of Health Services, Dr Edwin Sibanda, said the land could accommodate about 7 000 graves.
“The Acting Director of Health Services reported that the Director of Engineering Services (Town Planning) had indicated that the above piece of land had been reserved for use by funeral parlours, offices and related infrastructure close to West Park cemetery. However the idea was never taken up and the cemetery had since filled up,” said Dr Sibanda.
“It has now been decided that the said piece of land be utilised as additional burial ground. At the current rate of around 300 burials per month, the space might take up to 24 months to fill up.”
He said all cemetery infrastructure including offices, ablution facilities and water were already in place.
He said the re-opening of the cemetery would give council more time to develop Marvel cemetery near Mahatshula suburb.
“While partial clearing had been done at this cemetery, the issue of accessing it either off the Harare road or from across the railway line had not been resolved up to now,” said Dr Sibanda.
“The re-opening of West Park cemetery would therefore give council some respite, and limit over-reliance on Luveve Cemetery, particularly for eastern areas.”
Councillor Thobane Ncube suggested that additional burial space at West Park be limited to residents from the eastern suburbs. However, the engineering department said such a move had been resisted in the past and burials had been based on individual preference. Chronicle
