Residents take over park
RESIDENTS of Sauerstown in Bulawayo have come together to rehabilitate a recreational facility in the suburb, as the community works on ensuring that it has a positive impact on youths and children.
The park has been neglected over the past few years with grass and trees now outgrowing it, while the children’s playing equipment has also become obsolete and posing a hazard to the children. Last Sunday, residents came together and began the community clean-up campaign in a bid to revive the facility.
“The park has been left idle for some years now and is not serving its intended purpose as a playing ground for the children of Sauerstown. We felt it best to take this upon ourselves to try and resuscitate the park the best way we can as residents. Our children are playing on the roads and are prone to dangers from cars and general hazards.
“The equipment has deteriorated over the years and only two items in the park are visible with only one still in a good condition. We as residents feel we cannot just watch and do nothing about the state of the park and we have since started general cleaning and clearing of the park,” reads a request by the residents to the local authority.
The residents reportedly also want to turn the facility into a fully-fledged community centre with other amenities like a basketball court.
“We felt that we approach you as council and request that you look into our concerns and what we feel we can do as residents and partner you as council so that we resuscitate the park. Our goals are to have the park function as children’s playing ground since it was intended for that purpose. We wish to fix the playing ground and its equipment with the help from residents, sponsors, Diaspora and the help from city council. We intend to put up a fence or structural borders which ever will work out cheaper with obviously the permission from you our city fathers,” reads the request.
The residents also requested that a borehole be drilled that will save the community and will also help maintain the recreation facility.
“Upper Sauerstown has never had a community borehole that serves the community like what other locations have. We are looking at the bigger picture if we are given permission by council to drill a borehole near the park or not to jump the gun if our own Government can assist us to drill the borehole from Constituency Development Fund. It will serve the park in terms of having a lawn planted and maintained by the water from the borehole as well as serve the community in times when we have no water in our taps due to water shedding. When the park is functioning the benefits outweigh leaving it in the state that it is in currently. Let’s look at this benefit that surely has innocent children who deserve a clean and safe place to play,” noted the residents.
The local authority recently confirmed that they were struggling with the maintenance of their parks chief among the challenges being the water for irrigation. This was revealed during a service delivery update media briefing.
“They are generally dry parks with minimum lawn and flowers. The dry grass and trees are maintained. All the parks need water especially boreholes for a green environment. Future plans include to continue partnerships with various stakeholders, drill and equip boreholes in all parks and provide modern irrigation systems,” reads the statement from council.