HLB wages war on sewer system challenges

Staff Reporter

HWANGE-Hwange Local  Board’s  civil engineering  technician,  Tinashe Tapfumaneyi  says  the  local authority  will  strive  to  efficiently  attend  to sewer  challenges  in  its  area  of  jurisdiction in-line  with  time  frames  stipulated  by  the Urban  Local  Authorities’  Service  Level Benchmarking  Standards. 

Eng.  Tapfumaneyi  said  the  local  authority prioritises  management  of  sewer  systems as  one  of  its  paramount  service delivery  mandates.

 “As  a  local  authority  we  are  aware  that  the management  of  sewer  systems  directly impacts  on  hygiene  and  sanitation,  thus  we are  always  wary  of  any  sewer  mishap  in  our area.   

We  always  make  it  an  effort  to  attend blockages  or  bursts within  the  shortest  of outbreak  of  water  borne  disease periods  depending  on  the  availability  of transport and requisite  resources,”  he  said. 

Sinikiwe Ndlovu, a resident at DRC in Empumalanga welcomed HLB’s move to prioritise attending to sewer challenges given the difficulty presented to residents  by sewer bursts and blockages.

“The decision to deal with sewer bursts and blockages expeditiously is a big relief and allays fears of having our children contracting water-borne diseases,” she said.

Milton Sibanda who resides near St Patrick’s hospital said the move to swiftly deal with sewer problems was long overdue.

“I hope that HLB can keep their word as they have done on other issues before. This local authority hasn’t done badly considering what is happening other cities,” he added.

The  Urban  Local  Authorities’  Service  Level Benchmarking  Standards  stipulates that  the local authority  must  take  between  8  to  24  hours to attend  to sewer blockages. Urban  Local  Authorities  are  mandated  to manage  sewage  and  sewerage  systems under  the  Urban  Council’s  Act  (Chapter 29:15).  This  involves  the  collection, conveyance,  treatment,  and  disposal  of sewage  or  storm  water. 

They  are  also  responsible  for  the  overall planning, designing, construction, sustainable  operation,  maintenance  and management  of  sewer systems. 

“We  are  cognisant  of  the  fact  that  failure to  manage  sewer  systems  may have deadly concequences. The  local  authority’s  sewer  task  team managed  to  address  perennial  sewer  bursts which  had  been  a  challenge  for  about  10 years  at  one  of  the  neighbourhoods  in Empumalanga high  density  suburb.

 Roots  from  a  tree  had  damaged  the  pipe and  started  to  grow  inside  it  thus disturbing  the  flow  of  sewer  culminating  in blockages,”  said Eng.  Tapfumaneyi. 

HLB  has  set  sights  at  upgrading the sewer reticulation  system  at  Empumalanga  to enable  it  to  be  compartible  with  the growth  of  the area.