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By Elvis Dumba
Banket – Residents of the small farming town of Banket are experiencing perennial sewer pipe bursts resulting in raw effluent flowing in residential suburbs, thereby threatening a disease outbreak.
Inhabitants of Kuwadzana suburb interviewed expressed fears they could contract deadly diseases such as cholera, dysentery, and typhoid if the situation is not urgently rectified.
“We have had this problem going on for years now. Every week we experience raw sewer flowing into houses. We are now fed up with this problem as just after a day or two we had the bursts again,” said Prudence Nyamande, a resident.
Residents, including children, have to navigate their way across rivers of raw sewer in the streets as the effluent problem persists in Banket with council workers being overwhelmed with the persisting problem. A visit to some affected residential stands revealed homes being flooded with the sewer flowing inside homes.
Another affected resident, Samson Musapurwa said they fear for their health.
“We are worried over our health as there has been an increase in mosquitoes breeding in these perennially wet places. In some homes, the sewer actually flows into rooms. For crying out loud, we have crawling toddlers in these homes who are most susceptible to diseases.”
Banket Town Board chairperson, Councillor Never Hutepasi said the sewer problem was a result of an overwhelmed sewer reticulation system.
He said the local authority was seized with upgrading it to cope with the town’s growing population.
“We acknowledge the sewer problems facing some of our residents. This is due to an obsolete sewer reticulation system. Our sewer ponds are full and have become too small for the ever-increasing population and as the council, we are currently engaging contractors so that we revamp the system with the possibility to request borrowing powers from the government to finance the project.
“The blockages we usually attend to are mainly caused by residents who throw foreign objects in the sewer lines, thereby creating blockages as our workers usually attend to blocked sewer pipes that are blocked by sand and other objects,” said the council chairman.
Hutepasi also said they hoped that they will be able to end the sewer challenges after indications that the Town Board will start receiving Devolution fund allocations directly from the central government unlike in the past when the funds were channeled under Zvimba Rural District Council.