It’s not everyday you find me writing a story from Plumtree. A story finding its way on these pages would have made an impact in my day to day activities at this western corner of Zimbabwe. Sometimes life can be rough and at times life can be good – Life goes on.
Sometimes being honest is better than coming up with some tall tales. The Newsday of 19 June ran a story that Plumtree had run dry because of a ZESA power line which was down at Mhlanga Dam – one of the water sources which supplies the town. When ZESA refuted the assertion we were left confused as to what was the proper position. Under such circumstances social media comes alive – some were saying after power was restored pipes which had been repaired also burst out compounding the situation. At times like this we need an efficient Public Relations department as the town council to inform residents about the proper situation.
Water is a fundamental human right. Section 77(a) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe (No.20) Act 2013: Every person has the right to safe, clean and potable water and the state must take reasonable legislative and other measures, within the limits of the resources available to it, to achieve progressive realisation of this right. Section 77 must be read with section 11 which calls for the State to take all practical measures to protect the fundamental rights enshrined in Chapter 4 to promote their full realisation and fulfilment.
The Plumtree Town Council as an administrative authority has the duty to provide its residents with clean,safe and potable water as per the dictates of section 3 of the Administrative Justice Act[Chapter 10:28]. If it cannot then it must at least inform us -residents -as to the reason(s) why it cannot do so and the steps it is taking to rectify the breach on such a fundamental human right.
Governed by other legislative pieces such as the Urban Councils Act and the Water Act, I am of the view that the Plumtree Town Council is in breach of its mandate of supplying its residents with water. If Mhlanga Dam is not up then the other source of water, Mangwe Dam must be supplying the authority with water.
A closer look at the authority’s website shows that Water Section of the Engineering Department is responsible for the provision of safe,clean water to the residents among other things: “This section caters for customer supply projects, such as connections on metering, timely response to customer reports, responding to water supply breakdowns, availing adequate information on water supplies to customers.”
Sometimes you brush away small missteps thinking that they are a once off event yet its beginning bigger and worse things to come. I am now the third tenant after the tenant who once lived at my place of residence but the water and sewer bill statement still come in his name besides having done the change of tenant processes.
During the initial trial runs – the meter was installed and one would take the magnetic reader to the Council offices were some other instrument was used to feed the water units on the magnetic strip. To my shock on the initial such payment my meter number was married to my next door neighbour. Rectifying the error took more time than I expected – you are referred to the Engineering Department from the Payments Office. At the Engineering office, where you expect to just provide your details for calibration to be done you are told that we have to find another magnetic reader from some other technician who is out in the field! After my next door neighbour’s smart meter developed some problems it was removed and the old postpaid meter type was re-installed. That is like one step forward and two steps backwards really.
As the trial roll-out was finished the pre-paid smart meters were upgraded. The magnetic strip was removed and a smart card and a remote control was introduced. This was spiced up by having the Town Council Biller utility facility incorporated on the ZB Bank internet and mobile money banking platform. I understand the facility is also linked with the acocash system as well though it’s not a real time process. This discourages customers to use the facility.
I like convenient experiences. I know most of my colleagues use Zb Bank so we simply transact, they load my smart card with water units and then I give them the required amount in the convenience of my home via Zipit or ecocash. While watching television, I simply use the remote control to connect with the smart water-meter and activate the system.
All this system is up for is for the convenience of both the Council and its clients. I owe the council a historical water and sewer debt. So each time I make a payment they deduct a certain percentage towards recovering their debts before they sell water to me.
Still there are some issues I don’t understand – The issue of missteps. I have resigned to the fact that my place of residence is a GMB house. The name which appears every time is GMB. I went physically to the Plumtree Town Council to have the issue rectified but God knows why they are failing to sort out such a simple issue.
Yes, Plumtree Town Council, we have the smart water-meters but out taps are dry. They have been dry for over two weeks now. We are square with ZESA, they communicate with us and we have developed an understanding. Sometimes if they say power will be down until 1800 hours they even surprise us by restoring it at 1600 hours. The least we expect from you is some form of communication with us.
Plumtree Town Council- “From a train station to a fast growing border town”. A border town needs running water. There is a high population of transit people. If clean, safe and potable water is not available chances of outbreak of diseases such as typhoid and cholera are high.
The Truth! 