VICTORIA Falls is one of the best-managed local authorities in the country, with most basic services available to residents despite the challenges facing the country.
This came out during a strategic planning and review meeting between the local authority and its stakeholders yesterday.
The principal of Elangeni Training Centre in Bulawayo, Mr Benson Rukasha, is the facilitator of the meeting with the help of some officials from the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works.
The Public Service Commission convened the meeting that started on Monday and ends today.
The country’s newest city’s strength has been in leveraging public-private partnerships where the local authority works with various stakeholders including tourism sector players, and individual developers.
Victoria Falls was declared a city in 2019.
In Zimbabwe, most cities have been accused of faltering in service delivery with garbage piling up in central business districts and suburbs, poor road network, erratic and unclean water supply among other challenges.
Mr Rukasha said looking at assessment in terms of performance based on critical areas like governance and administration, water, sanitation and hygiene, infrastructure, public safety and security, and waste management among others, Victoria Falls was better than other urban areas in the country.
The sentiments come as the tourism city is working on a five-year strategic plan under which it targets to become Zimbabwe’s first smart city through the adoption of green environment strategies in urban management.
The meeting was organised to allow the city and stakeholders to plan together using a participatory approach to fulfil the needs of stakeholders.
Mr Rukasha said in terms of water, Victoria Falls is better than other cities where residents have access for an average of four hours per day as the city supplies the precious liquid for an average of 15 hours a day according to a report by the city engineer.
Raw sewage rarely flows on the ground in Victoria Falls.
The city is arguably the cleanest, thanks not only to the city’s efforts.
Various stakeholders who have embraced the national clean-up campaign and formed Pristine Victoria Falls Initiative have members who pick up litter every day.
“We saw notable cleanliness and raw water and sewer reticulation are quite up the mark which is unique with Victoria Falls. If you get into other towns you would see sewage flowing everywhere.
“In terms of roads that are tarred you rarely find potholes. Yes, they have dusty roads which need improvement during this rainy season but the trafficability of their roads is about 87 percent. This is a good performance though not the best and we give them a note on that.
“They have installed solar-powered street lights which improved public safety and security and as far as social services are concerned, it appears through public-private partnerships the community is getting services.
“We are not saying they are perfect but they are better than other towns. In terms of benchmarking on our assessment, they are doing quite well but there is room to improve because we want the community and country at large to get services,” said Mr Rukasha.
He said the city has one of the best well-engineered landfills.
Town Clerk Mr Ronnie Dube said the city had set targets and managed to achieve some while others are still in the pipeline because of lack of financial resources.
The local authority is owed more than $500 million in unpaid rates and bills by residents and other stakeholders.
“This strategic planning and review meeting conforms with National Development Strategy 1 as required by central Government and we are grateful stakeholders raised very pertinent issues which council will take along.
“We appreciate the commendation but we feel we could do better if all debts are paid as we are operating on a shoestring budget,” he said.
Victoria Falls Combined Residents Association chair Mr Kelvin Moyo said the city needs to provide unmatched service as a tourism destination.
Mrs Sifiso Mpofu, a resident, implored council to demand favourable rates to encourage residents to pay their dues. – The Chronicle
