Residents in the densely populated suburb of Mbare in the ‘Majubheki’ area have called on the Harare Municipality to urgently address their long-standing sewer challenges.
More than 30 houses are affected and the problem has been re-occurring for more than a decade and residents fear a Cholera outbreak, which will be a double whammy for the residents during this Covid-19 pandemic.
“We are now afraid of an outbreak of Cholera as we have sewer flowing everywhere making life difficult for us and our children.
“The responsible authorities have since failed to bring this challenge to an end as they always come and fix the problem temporarily and in a few days the pipes burst again,” said Sam Matombo.
An elderly resident who spoke on condition of anonymity said the major challenge is the old infrastructure.
“Our major challenge is that we have old infrastructure which is no longer copying with the current increase in population.
“The City Council also have not been wise enough to change the old sewer pipes and replace them with the new ones which are made of plastic and are easy to attend to in the event of a burst,” she said.
Harare City Council spokesperson Michael Chideme in response to the matter, said burst sewer pipes are always attended to.
“Burst sewer pipes are always attended to, we encourage residents to make reports to our district office so that our offices can quickly attend to any burst sewers so that we avoid the spread of diseases in the suburb.
“It is also advisable for households to use proper materials when they use ablution facilities because sometimes it is the material used that lock the sewer lines,” he said.