Heavy rains: A blessing, curse

• Residents, councils blamed for blocked drains

By Kundai Marunya

Poor town planning and lack of frequent repair and unclogging of drainage systems has left most Zimbabwean urban residents exposed to flash floods and waterborne diseases.
A drainage system dating back to the colonial era, which has been neglected for decades – has also finally given in.
Most storm drains, be they in residential or city and town centres are clogged due to the soil washed away from their catchment area and litter.
Vendors, particularly in Harare, “store” their wares in the city’s drainage system, which acts as a hideaway during their cat and mouse games with law enforcement.
In the event of rains or heavy downpours as has been the case lately, it is this material that clogs the systems. They also leave the boxes they use as stalls in the drainage for safe-keeping, which also blocks the drainage in event of heavy rains.
Average rains leave most of Harare’s CBD with water flooding the roads and pavements, exposing pedestrians to waterborne ailments.
The city’s flyover on Simon Mazorodze road which connects the CBD to Mbare and other Southern suburbs is currently covered with muddy water making it impossible for low suspension vehicles to cross while a 10-metre stretch of the road remains submerged.
The capital’s Budiriro suburb recently made headlines as water flooded the residential area, getting into houses, destroying household goods in the process.
“A lot of residents in Budiriro were settled on wetlands or waterways. Their houses are inaccessible due to flooding. Roads in Budiriro are heavily potholed and muddy,” said Harare Residents Trust (HRT)’s Precious Shumba.
Shumba blamed the poor town planning on land barons who parcel out land on areas that are not suitable for human habitation, or needs special civil engineered systems before development.
Settling on waterways and wetlands is illegal under the country’s Environmental Act, but land barons always find ways around the compulsory environmental assessment.
Most of the land barons who reap-off residents through scores of housing cooperatives and schemes are not registered and use political party, Government and city council links to illegally acquire land and sell residential stands without following due process.
“This is a difficult time for the victims of illegal housing developments and for town planning in Harare. It is unfortunate that when warnings are given to desperate home seekers that where they are being offered land for housing developments are wetlands and undesignated places, they ignore these notices,” said Shumba.
“It is a problem brought by greedy councillors, officials and politicians.”
HRT called for the arrest of land barons and their allies in Government and council.
“Arrest the known people who sold the wetlands to these residents. Council should identify alternative land for housing developments and properly allocate the victims who are on the housing waiting list of the City of Harare,” said Shumba.
“Every one of the victims is aware that they built on an undesignated site.”
A similar situation is currently haunting some Gweru residents, as flash floods recurrently flow into their houses.
Residents were recently forced to abandoned their houses for higher ground when a heavy water flow into their houses woke them in the middle of the night.
“There have never been deliberate efforts from our local authority, the Gweru City Council, to open drainages and deliberate efforts in doing civic education,” said Cornelius Selitswe from Gweru Residence and Ratepayers Association (GRRA).
“Just opening these storm drains and drainage systems without educating residents doesn’t really help. Partly to blame are residents also because they are the ones throwing rubbish in these drainages.”
As a result of negligence on the part of both residence and the local authority residents continue to incur losses.
“What has been a result of all this is that water is getting into people’s houses, destroying even roads as there in no pathway for the water to use,” he said.
Selitswe is calling for residents and local authorities to come together in a bid to find lasting solutions.
“What needs to happen is we need combined efforts from both the residents and local authorities to make sure that challenges with drainage are attended to,” he said.
GRRA said though residents are to blame for irresponsible litter disposal, refuse collection is also a major challenge.
The absence of frequent refuse collection especially in the wake of Covid-19 is one that has been affecting most urban councils.
Even Harare CBD’s skip bins are rarely collected with one on First Street, behind the police outpost being the most visible.
“The greatest challenge is we have a problem as residents. We are not responsible sometimes because we are throwing away our rubbish into drainages and the local authority is not doing enough also to clear drainages,” said Selitswe.
“One of the major factors why residents are throwing litter in drainages is that there is no refuse collection so it’s a chain of challenges.”
Norton also faces similar challenges as storm drains are rarely maintained while new suburbs do not have water ways at all.
Maridale residential area in the small town is infamous for water flowing into houses every rainy season. This is the same area that is famous for sewer bursts, thus posing a serious health hazard to residents. Nhau/Indaba