BULAWAYO City Council (BCC) has said all sewage ponds in the city have collapsed resulting in an increase in pipe bursts.
“We have got a major problem with sewage. We have eight sewage ponds in the city and none of them is working. Hence that is our purpose as the local authority to try and get them working,” Bulawayo mayor David Coltart told NewsDay.
“But it is a big problem and I appeal to all of you to help us because some of those blockages are caused by our negligence. We dump litter, plastic bottles, cutlery into the system and they block the pipes."
He pleaded with residents to change their culture.
“We need every person to work with us so that we clean up the city. It starts with one person for us achieve the goal of cleaning up the city,” Coltart said.
Ward 22 councillor Mmeli Moyo said there was a shortage of tools used in maintaining sewer systems.
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“We are supposed to have 40 of those wires but we are just managing the city with only six,” Moyo said.
Moyo said water shortage was also another major challenge as sewage has a co-relationship with water.
Recently ward 25 councillor Aleck Ndlovu disclosed that water shortage in Bulawayo is one of the main causes for sewage problems.
Ndlovu said long water-shedding hours being experienced in the city were constantly causing sewer blockages in the city.
Ndlovu said he held residents accountable for their carelessness in taking care of the drainage systems in their homes.
In 2022, Bulawayo councillors proposed that the local authority hires community plumbers to attend to pipe bursts.
Council blamed the incessant pipe bursts on ageing water and sewage reticulation infrastructure.
Council minutes show that city fathers are concerned about the increasing sewage pipe bursts which can trigger outbreaks of diseases such as cholera.
While it is a council requirement that the plumbers should have, among other things, a motor vehicle and plumbing equipment, councillor Silas Chigora said there was a need to relax some of the requirements.
In 2021, council said an estimated US$500 million was required over a 20-year period to upgrade the city’s water and sewage reticulation infrastructure.
Bulawayo continues to lose water due to pipe bursts and leaks, with an average of 90 faults being received per day.
Council is failing to attend to pipe bursts on time due to manpower shortages, resulting in backlogs.
In some suburbs, sewage flows into people’s homes, exposing residents to waterborne diseases.
In 2020, a diarrhoea outbreak killed 13 people in Luveve and infected several thousands.
The outbreak was blamed on contamination of potable water by sewage emanating from burst pipes.