Raw sewer on the streets in Mufakose: Residents riled

By Clemence Muchedzi

Mufakose residents have bemoaned the failure of the City of Harare to quickly fix the sewerage system and are irked that the municipality is ignoring them in a risky situation where they are enduring raw sewer flowing on the streets and contaminating water bodies.

This has prompted residents to petition the council to fix the blocked drainages sooner in order to avert the imminent health time bomb.

In an interview with this publication, A Mufakose resident Shakemore Mupiwa said “Blocked drainages and sewerage system are resulting in raw sewer flowing into people’s homesteads, risking water-borne diseases like cholera and typhoid.”

Another resident, Nyasha Manyengavana said apart from the pungent smell, the raw sewer posed health hazards to the community.

“As residents, our health is at risk because of raw sewer from burst pipes. When we notify the City of Harare, it takes weeks and months before the workers come to attend to such problems.

“This puts us at risk of contracting cholera, typhoid, and even malaria as the sewer is a good habitat for mosquitoes,” she said.

Another resident Mai Vanessa whose toilet is overflowing with raw sewer said “Our ablution facilities are flooded with raw sewer to the extent that we can’t use our toilets and neither can we bath before going to work. We end up relieving ourselves in the bush despite the fact that we live in the capital city where such services are expected to be efficient, ” Manyengavana said.

City of Harare Spokesperson, Mr. Michael Chideme said “If people report problems of burst sewer at our workplace we will definitely execute our job by attending to it on time. We urge residents not to dump materials meant for recycling into the sewerage system. The bad management of household waste is causing the blockages.”

A concerned senior citizen, Mbuya Mureverwi said residents should be responsible and avoid dumping garbage into the sewerage system since doing so will result in the problems that the residents are facing.

“Women have a habit of dumping items like baby diapers and tampons into the sewerage system. This should stop because such behaviour will come to haunt us when we end up having blocked sewer systems resulting in raw sewer flowing everywhere. As residents, we will definitely shoulder the consequences of the failure to properly manage our environment,” Mbuya Mureverwi said.