BULAWAYO’s collapsing sewerage system has been blamed for the closure of one of the city’s prime tourist attractions, Umguza Yacht Club, as raw affluent from treatment plants is being discharged into its dam.
BY NQOBANI NDLOVU
The leisure resort — popular for boat cruising, horse riding and braais — is now in a sorry state as raw sewerage from Bulawayo is discharged into Umguza River resulting in the growth of the deadly hyacinth weed which has completely covered the dam.
Bulawayo City Council (BCC) engineering deputy director, Simela Dube, told a commission of inquiry into the sale of State land in and around urban areas that the place is now a white elephant because of challenges associated with the city‘s sewer system.
“This place is no longer functioning because of collapsed sewer system. One of our sewer treatment plants has been discharging raw sewer into Umguza River and this has affected the dam,” Dube told the commission during a tour of the council-owned Goodhope Farm on Monday.
Dube told the Justice Tendai Uchena-led commission that council was currently addressing the sewerage challenges facing the local authority.
“We have already started refurbishing the collapsed sewer system. We recently completed excavating a new sewer trench which will address some of the challenges,” he said.
During the tour, the engineer told the Southern Eye hat council is losing a lot of revenue as a result of the closure of the tourism facility.
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“There used to be a lot of recreational activities at this site. Now as you can see, the place is deserted and in bad shape. There is no much business being generated here anymore,” he said.
The provincial physical planning officer for Matabeleland North, Raymond Nyandoro told the commissioners during the tour that Goodhope Farm was wrongly gazetted and taken over by government.
“This farm was wrongly gazetted. The land belongs to council,” he said.
Dube confirmed the farm’s status, saying council had strongly objected to its acquisition, but the government went ahead. In 2016 Bulawayo City Council launched a $37 million water and sewerage services project aimed at improving service delivery and curbing environmental pollution from raw sewerage.
