Masvingo starts crafting development master plan

THE Masvingo City Council has initiated moves to morph into an industrialised metropolitan by the year 2030 with work having started on the ancient city’s master plan that will guide the city’s expansion.

President Mnangagwa has given all local authorities in the country the June 30 deadline to have their master plans approved by the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works as the Second Republic moves to curb the mushrooming of illegal and haphazard settlements, especially in urban areas.

Officials from the country’s oldest town yesterday met the city’s key stakeholders, marking the start of consultations towards crafting a new master plan that will anchor and guide the city’s development for the next 20 years.

Town Clerk Engineer Edward Mukaratirwa yesterday hailed the inaugural meeting of stakeholders. He said it will culminate in the crafting of a draft master plan that will be scrutinised again by the stakeholders for approval before transmission to the Government for endorsement.

‘’We had a meeting of stakeholders drawn from various facets of the city where we wanted them to share their experiences on issues to do with service delivery, among others, and also give input on what and how the city must look like in the next 20 years. This is in line with the deadline of June 30 that we were given by President Mnangagwa to have an approved master plan,’’ said Engineer Mukaratirwa.

‘’We looked at sectors such as social services and infrastructure, where the issue of water supply loomed large, with stakeholders saying the city should have uninterrupted water supply in all areas 24/7. There was also another burning issue of the low concentration of health facilities across Masvingo City, which means we need to build more clinics to serve even peri-urban areas.’’

The town clerk also revealed that stakeholders expressed concern over few schools that are currently serving the city, a situation that has spawned hot-seating at both primary and secondary schools in Masvingo.

Council is currently building Rujeko Secondary School in the city. It is the first council-owned secondary school, and has been welcomed by residents for exorcising the ghost of hot-seating. Masvingo has already set an ambitious target, to become an industrialised metropolitan by 2030, with the country’s oldest town riding on a national pivot to industrialise the country to make Zimbabwe an upper middle-income society by 2030.

The city is close to sealing a multi-million-dollar water augmentation project that has been touted as a solution to recurrent water challenges.

Masvingo suffers water challenges despite drawing supplies from Lake Mutirikwi, Zimbabwe’s second largest inland dam.