Drainage systems maul residents, business

By Lovemore Chazingwa

Mash West Bureau

Hodes of residents in the province could not stomach a nasty experience as they spent nights battling storm water and sewerage drainage that was abundantly flowing into their homes after heavy downpours that pounced the province in the past fortnight.
The heavy downpours were a continuation of incessant rains that have pounded the vast geography since the onset of a mid-season wet spell in the aftermath of a characteristic drought.
Residents posted pictures of pathetic conditions in their houses, which clearly showed the disturbances the drainage was bringing about.
Home set-ups indicated damage that was brought into dinning lounges, sitting and, bed rooms as well as kitchens. A host of household property, furniture and groceries were visibly damaged.
External servitudes were not spared.
Residents vented their anger at local authorities for failing to reign in the impending havoc in the wake of the onset of the rain season.
Most of them boldly blaming councils for failing to attend to infrastructure conditions in advance.
The return of the rains brought smiles to many a resident especially, those whose field crops were showing signs of distress due to high temperatures and moisture loss. Rains are also welcome to ease domestic and commercial water blues.
Pasture health for both livestock and wildlife becomes the order of the day, adding to the warm reception of the return of that wet spell.
However, the latest downpours brought numerous challenges into the homes and industrial settings. The heavy rains exposed town and city engineering works as many homes in downtown lowlying areas experienced waste water and sewerage storming into their homes and work stations. The pounding left a trail of destruction coupled by sleepless nights for both residents and business minds.
Residents of Ingezi, Waverly and Rimuka in Kadoma seemed to have been the hardest hit in that part of the city as they shared their sad stories on social media platforms.
In Norton Town, a carbon copy of events unfolded as was detailed from a full council meeting Wednesday.
Norton Town deputy director engineering services, Eng. Kurai Michael Baureni took council through a detailed graphic of causes and possible solutions to the menace.
“I compiled a comprehensive report of the flooding situation in our town. I will not go through it all save for highlights to flag critical areas. We can share the rest on our official platforms.
On the causes of flooding, they include
downstream settlements,
climate change,
human activities along the water channel and
construction of illegal structures blocking boundary walls and cottages. Norton hardest hit are Wards 5, 11, 12 and 13. Ngoni and Katanga are some of the most affected by storm water and sewerage drainage into homes.
Inadequate infrastructure designs were done without cognisance of climate change.”
Eng. Baureni proffered solutions to the sad scenario. “Speaking of possible
remedies, we need
destruction of illegal and regularization of those that qualify. There is need to
rectify some durawalls to have loophole
openings for enabling storm water and sewerage to pass through. We must improve on our infrastructure to redistribute water.
That includes re-routing meanders to other channels. Another critical area obviously, is to
increase capacity of storm water infrastructure on bigger roads which includes utilizing culverts on these for avoidance of blanket runoff on the roads which leads to serious road damage due to indiscriminate
waterways,”
Eng. Baureni explains.
On social media platforms, one post reads, “Criminals and witches may return to their bases as we will be awake all night.”
When a daily update on dam levels was posted for Kadoma, another retorted: “We’ve enough in our homes from the storm yesterday.”
A post placating blame on both ends said, “These are results of indiscriminately disposing of litter all over by residents. On the other end, councils have negated placing refuse collection bins and overwhelmed systems bring us to this.”
Visuals shared did not make the reading any better.
It’s not for the first time such a situation has bogged the local authorities.
In recent times, teams from the parent Local Government Ministry and district development coordinator (DDC) offices had to be deployed to Kadoma, 2021, and Norton, last week, to asses the damage and find possible remedies.
In a post full council meeting interview, Norton Town mayor Cllr Action Mataruse said.
“We’ve immediately deployed our teams to trouble areas as this is a state of emergency. We want them to work on these by end of day today (yesterday). We appeal to stakeholders in and around our town to chip in and assist us overcome this challenge.”
In a telephonic response, Chegutu Town mayor, Cllr Rydes Machekera, said “The problem we have with lastest heavy rains is flooding and damaged roads due to a poor drainage. As council we need to have a proper drainage system. Without this storm water drains into homes as is the case in Kaguvi suburb of Ward 1. Basically, in other areas we have a better drainage system which properly channels storm water to appropriate routes and destinations.”
Speaking during a City of Kadoma full council meeting last Tuesday, authorities painted a gloomy picture, blantly declaring no solution in sight on the flooding situation. They only promised to deploy a team to affected suburbs and assess the severity of the damage.

*About the Writer*
Lovemore Chazingwa is the founder and interim chairperson of Municipal Writers Association of Zimbabwe (MWAZ).
He can be contacted on 0712 428 244 / 0782 929 782