Service delivery on verge of total collapse

For years, service delivery has been a big issue that often invokes anger when debated.
The anger is usually directed at urban councils as ratepayers rightly accuse local authorities of failing to deliver services paid for.
Be it refuse collection, sewer and water, among other amenities, the system is on the brink of total failure.
Of late ZANU PF has, at every opportune moment, pointed accusatory fingers at the MDC-run councils, a perfect excuse for a hostile takeover.
Indeed local authorities and central Government have somehow connived to fail the people, but the ratepayers themselves are also complicit as they have acted in a totally irresponsible manner in just about everything.
Residents are always trying to find an easy way out, playing the blame game, but not putting in the effort required to try and rectify the problem.
And for two decades service delivery has continued to slide.
Instead of dealing with council for failure to collect refuse, since they are the ones that vote them into power – residents just find the closest empty space to dump waste.
They have even dug wells and accepted boreholes for their water right in the middle of big cities like Harare, Bulawayo, Gweru and Mutare.
Dumping of waste, which used to happen in the dead of the night – now happens in broad daylight.
In some of the newer high-density suburbs – when water becomes a problem, they defecate at the closest possible open space, ignoring the consequence of a possible cholera or typhoid outbreak. Same with the dirty public toilets, some people simply find the closest place to cleanliness and do their business there.
When the system fails, people take to social media to vent their anger but never directly engage the authorities with viable solutions or to force them to come up with answers.
At the end of the day, the authorities that one is venting their anger at on social media may never get to hear these complaints, and they are mostly not affected by ordinary people’s problems.
A solution-based approach is the way to go.
The country currently has urbanites frequently facing flash-floods as a result of clogged drainage systems. This is a problem faced by most of Zimbabwe’s big cities and towns on a regular basis during the rainy season.
Residents blame councils for poor urban planning and failure to maintain storm drains. On the other hand, councils blame residents for clogging the systems with garbage and allowing themselves to be duped by land barons into illegally purchasing stands on waterways and on wetlands.
It becomes just a blame game.
Indeed there is enough blame to go around, but no solution.
Each year the situation gets worse, as it did with storm drains, now water is flowing into people’s houses, laying waste to everything.
Zimbabwe has some of the brightest minds that can easily solve these problems. However, the biggest enemy is disunity and selfishness.
People should first accept the flaws, work on them and together find a lasting solution to service delivery issues. Nhau/Indaba