The owners of Sinethemba Community Organisation are appealing to the municipality to urgently fix blocked drains that have resulted to sewage spilling into their fresh produce garden.
According to the owners, the damage has made the site inaccessible and caused some damage to their vegetables.
Sinethemba is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) based in Harare and conducts various community upliftment initiatives.
Bongani Pretorius, who is a supervisor for the NGO, said they had to harvest their maize before time to avoid damage and losses.
He said the problem started on Thursday 17 April and when City Vision visited the project on Friday 25 April, the garden was still covered in sewage.
Pretorius stated that it was not the first time they encountered such a problem but the project was never threatened. He claimed the drains were fixed three weeks ago by the City employees. He said half of the garden has been affected.
“The sewage comes from the two big drains that are opposite the garden. It spreads and cames into the garden. It becomes worse now as the spillage continues.
“We are worried that it is going to destroy our plants if it spreads all over the garden,” said Pretorius.
He added that they reported the matter to the councillor’s office but nothing happened.
To curb the damage and halt the spillage, he said they put some sand into a section of the garden.
Pretorius said their main worry is the threat caused by the sewage to their produce.
“We have no choice, but to wear gumboots and harvest the maize before it is damaged. The pumpkins and beans are also affected by the incident,” he said.
Ward 98 councillor Anele Gabuza said he was aware of the drain burst near Diya Street in Harare citing that he already informed the City officials about it.
He said he is not clear what caused the drain burst as the City employees were recently fixed and cleaned all the drain in his ward late last year.
“In most cases the City employees are complaining about the foreign objects that they find inside the drains when they are cleaning them. I suspect maybe there is something that is inside the drains,” said Gabuza, adding that he will make the City officials fix the drain.
