BCC's Stands Infill Project To Blame For The Luveve Typhoid And Dysentery Outbreak - Former Council Engineer

A former Bulawayo City Council senior engineer who spoke to the Chronicle on condition of anonymity has blamed BCC for the outbreak he said was caused by the council’s decision to embark on a stands infill project which strained the suburb’s amenities used to provide reticulation services to Luveve.

Speaking to the publication, the former engineer said:

The creation of infill stands has seen open spaces in the form of green belts, parks, sports fields, powerline and major water pipe servitudes disappearing.

Open spaces in Bulawayo’s old suburbs are under immense pressure from developers who are working in cahoots with planners and engineers who connive to ignore laid down procedures to approve housing plans and water mains designs which compromise the safety of the natural environment and proper function of existing services for these suburbs which were not designed to accommodate the additional demand exerted by infills.

Sadly, some of the expansion in and around Luveve has been ad-hoc and therefore haphazard resulting in challenges faced by residents including flash flooding even with minimal rains, potholed roads, inefficient transport movement causing congestion and poor safety, burst sewers and water pipes, contaminated water, overcrowding and the risk of communicable diseases.

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Bulawayo Sewerage, Drainage and Water by laws (SI 390/1980) stipulate the following inter alia: that council shall supply and install a metre to all premises where it has agreed to supply; the quantity of water so registered shall be paid for by the consumer in accordance with the prescribed tariffs; no person shall construct any building or other structure over a water main or in such a manner as to be likely to interfere with or endanger a water main; no person may divert, re-align, open or take any action which might injure, endanger or destroy a water main.

It should be noted that the haphazard and unplanned sprouting of infills on land previously set aside as servitudes for major pipelines and other services such as electricity, roads, sewer mains, telecommunications has seen the above by-laws being ignored by greedy and cunning council technocrats working in cahoots with councillors. 

Bulawayo residents have filed a class action civil suit against the council after the outbreak killed 13 people and infected over 1500 others.

More: Sunday News