Hwange in exercise to avert drainage problems ahead of rains

By Thandeka Matebesi

Hwange Local Board has embarked on an exercise of clearing water storm drainages and culvert ahead of the imminent rains.

HLB public relations manager Mr Dumisani Nsingo said the exercise is part of their routine road maintenance and that the local authority will also patch potholes and mend road edge breaks.

“We were recently allocated $2,2 million by the Zimbabwe National Roads Administration and we have dedicated the fund towards routine road infrastructure maintenance.

We started the exercise two weeks ago and it involves clearing of water storm drains and culverts. We are also covering road edge breaks and filling potholes”, said Nsingo.

Nsingo added that that the exercise was targeting areas most affected by flooding for maintenance. 

“We are looking at completing this exercise next week and hopefully it will be before the onset of the rains because if it starts raining before we are done, it would be very difficult for us to work and effectively rehabilitate the affected areas.

At the moment we want to focus on the hotspots. These are areas where we experience perennial challenges, year in year out during the rainy season.

We may need periodic maintenance so that we have a permanent solution with regards to permanently repairing our road infrastructure and that would need quite a substantial amount of funding”, he said.

He also said that there was need for reconstruction of standard road infrastructure in suburbs such as Empumalanga where the existing infrastructure is substandard.

“There is a need for the reconstruction of road infrastructure at Empumalanga high density suburb owing to poor workmanship backdating over 30 years ago.

The design of the road infrastructure leaves a lot to be desired with substandard water storm drains while in other areas there are not there at all. 

As a result, the poor drainage systems in the suburb have exposed some homes to floods in rainy seasons”, said Nsingo.

He added, “The local authority already has plans to reconstruct the road infrastructure to make it more conducive by way of improving the standards and accessibility of the roads as well as construction of appropriate storm water drains to help prevent flooding by draining rainwater”.