Victoria Falls municipality to introduce special levy
VICTORIA Falls Municipality plans to introduce a special levy to cater for the servicing of sewer and road network in areas that are not properly connected. The most affected is Ward 11 in Mkhosana suburb where sections under the BD46 and BD39 residential schemes do not have sewer connection and the roads are in a bad state. The stands were developed in 2002 and residents only managed to put water pipes.
Some residents managed to put septic tanks whereas some have been using the bush to relieve themselves.
There have been concerns as residents have raised the issue during budget consultations but there has not been any visible change.
Town Clerk Ronnie Dube said that during the inception of the BD46 and BD39 stands there was an agreement that residents will service the stands on their own.
He, however, said the Municipality will soon introduce a billing system whereby concerned residents will be required to contribute towards the servicing of those areas.
“Initially, when residents started developing those stands they were supposed to finance the servicing as per an agreement with council.
“They, however, only managed to connect water pipes and failed to connect sewer systems and roads.
“Council is cognisant of that fact and we have completed a billing system whereby residents will be charged and council will service those areas.
“We are yet to finalise on how the system will operate but council is ready to start with the required work,” said the Town Clerk.
He said progress on the move will depend on residents’ response.
The same ward has had challenges of frequent water cuts and Mr Dube said they are working with chemical suppliers and the situation will soon normalise.
“The issue of water in a national concern. There has been an intermittent supply of chemicals. In our situation, our traditional supplier has run out of foreign currency.
“But, we have secured different suppliers.
“Those who want to supply us with chemicals are free to approach the local authority,” he said.
The local authority is currently servicing 200 upmarket residential stands and five commercial stands in the BB7 scheme that was introduced in 2016 after realisation that there was an ever increasing demand for accommodation in the resort town, which was recently accorded a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) status.