| DEVELOPMENT
Under
five mortality has
increased from 0.3%
to 0.6% largely due to
HIV/AIDS. To reduce this, programmes have been introduced to
reduce mother to child transmission. Minor influences to the
same increase include lack of immunization and poverty for the
low-income groups.
Reported crime cases - Statistics on this subject is scanty
and there are no records for 1993. Homicides and murder are
recorded as one. The figure of 18/1000 for thefts appears
too low. Many thefts go unreported and these are
prevalent especially during these difficult economic times.
Urban violence - For the City of Gweru, urban violence is really
insignificant. The scenario has been sustained by policies
on weapon control, crime prevention and domestic violence.
The neighbourhood watch committees i.e. partnerships between the
Police and communities has also ensured that urban violence is
under control.
The real data on poor households is not available but mere
observation would point towards an increase of poverty in the last
seven years merely as a result of the introduction of the Economic
Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP). The programme came
with a lot of retrenchments and coupled with poor economic growth,
inflation and rapid increases in basic commodities-most people
became vulnerable to poverty. Government introduced the
Poverty Alleviation Action Plan to try and redress the situation.
Female - Male gaps
For those figures available for both 1993 and 1998, it is evident
that female - male gaps exist in education, health and employment
at no more that 3% in favour of males. In order to achieve
equality, legislation and national policies have been enacted to
achieve gender equality.
SHELTER
Security
of tenure for over 96% of households persisted since 1993 and many
more now own their houses. The same trend applied for woman
headed households. The percentage of households with
precarious tenure is disturbingly increasing over the years.
Athough the national law promotes rights to adequate housing, it
does not protect against evictions. There are also
traditional barriers to women inheriting land and housing much as
there are many other impediments to other groups, such as the
elderly, disabled, destitute, unemployed and squatters,
owing land and housing. Nonetheless, the government
policy for the last 15 years has been to encourage the municipal
council to convert rented Municipal houses to homeownership as
well as gender realization in the allocation of these houses.
This has largely benefited the low-income groups.
It would appear as though houses in 1998 were slightly more
affordable than they were in 1993. Similarly only a fifth of
the household income was being used on rents in 1998 as compared
to a quarter in 1993. This again suggests that housing was
more affordable in 1998 than in 1993 thereby promoting the right
to adequate housing.
At a median household income of $5 000.00 per month land became
more affordable in 1998 than it was in 1993 thereby promoting
better access to land for both individual households and the
private sector.
Access to mortgage finance has been very limited for both 1993 and
1998 as to only account for about a third of all dwellings
purchased. Households, particularly middle income groups
have largely depended on commercial loans for the purchase or
developments of dwellings. This scenario has severely
restricted housing ownership to this particular group and hence
the long waiting lists with Council.
All settlements in the City of Gweru have access to clean and
affordable water. The City of Gweru has no informal settlements
and since 1993 all its settlements had 100% water and sewerage
connections and 90% electricity connections. Telephone
services provision was quite poor but with digitalization this has
increased to over 60% of households. In all respects, the
standards of living for our people with respect to provision of
these services are good.
ENVIRONMENTAL
MANAGEMENT
Urban
population growth - There are more females than males at city and
national level. Respective growth rates were 7.5% for males
and 8.9% for females. The total population growth rates
(males and females combined) were 8.3% for both city and national
urban population. This figure is much higher than the 2.7%
for the national population implying a more rapid population
growth in our cities.
Water consumption - At 100 litres per person per day, water
consumption levels are reasonable and no measures are necessary to
reduce same. However, to keep the city adequately supplied
it has been necessary to upgrade water mains and reservoir
capacity for Mkoba and Ridgemont.
Median price of water - Price of water is uniform for all parts of
the City and this has increased by about 400% over the five years
under consideration, notwithstanding that for two years i.e. 1997
and 1998 the water tariff was not changed and remained at $59.10m³.
Water is generally expensive for the city population and is being
used sparingly no wonder why consumption levels are reasonable.
Air pollution - Data is not available for this indicator because
there are no monitoring stations and requisite measuring
equipment. General observation shows that there is a lot of
urban pollution that is going on unabated. The issue needs
urgent attention and Council would greatly appreciate assistance
in this regard.
Wastewater treated - Over 95% of the City’s wastewater is
treated. The other 5% is accounted for by sporadic
breakdowns of the treatment plants whose equipment is largely
obsolete. There is need to acquire new treatment technology
and improve the quality of effluent.
Solid waste disposal - While there are no statistics for
1993, those for 1998 show that over 66% solid waste is adequately
disposed off either by land filling, incineration, recycling and
burning. The remaining 34% accounts for open dumping largely
as a result of inadequate resources for collection. To
improve the situation a waste management programme is now being
implemented which involves the construction of a new sanitary
landfill with proper landfill practices. In addition more
vehicles to transport garbage will be required.
Disaster prevention and mitigation instruments - The City has no
hazard mapping because expertise and technical equipment is not
available. While insurances for buildings exist, these are
not compulsory. Civil protection committees exist at
distinct and provincial levels, the City’s Fire Brigade also
plays a vital role in disaster prevention and mitigation. Capacity
for post-disaster response is limited due to lack of resources.
Travel time - Travel time for a normal journey to work has been
reduced from 28 minutes in 1993 to 15minutes in 1998.
Traffic congestion was never a problem but the availability of
public transport itself. The situation has greatly improved
as more people now have access to private cars and also because
the urban public transport sector has been liberalized to allow
operation of commuter minibuses alongside conventional buses.
Transport modes - Data on this indicator was difficult to get
within the time and resources available. The Central
Statistical Office could assist.
Local environmental plans - The City of Gweru is involved in
implementing local environmental plans and Agenda 21 initiatives.
To this extent it is undertaking a pilot project on waste
management which involves formation of waste management plans and
introduction of proper sanitary landfill practices. The
industrial and commercial sectors, residents, government
departments and non-governmental organizations are participating
at various stages.
ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT
Public
private partnerships
Following other cities like Harare, the City of Gweru is working
on a proposal to privatize the provision of its sewer and water
services. To that extent, the effectiveness of such partnerships
is not yet known.
City Product - The City Product figures need verification.
However from what we got, economic activity within the City of
Gweru has increased significantly from a City Product of $1 110.03
per person to $3 486.07 in 1998. The percentage increase for
the City Product over the period is 214.05% which is slightly
higher than that for the gross national product at 209.62%.
This suggests that the City’s economy was doing better than the
national economy.
GOVERNANCE
While
major responsibilities, policy management and decision making is
reasonably decentralized, Councils still do not have a final say
on revenue base expansion. This seriously curtails the
City’s ability to collect sufficient financial resources for the
implementation of priority developments projects.
The City of Gweru attempts to involve civil society in
participating processes at least within the scope of existing
institutional and legal frameworks. However the
participatory processes are quite weak and there is need for a
massive education drive on civic participation in identifying
priorities, setting goals and implementing programmes and projects
that benefit our community.
The City’s operations ensure transparency and accountability in
the use of public resources. Regular independent audits are
done, contracts and tenders are published and policies to disclose
potential conflict of interest are in place.
The City’s revenue has always been less that its expenditure
resulting in budget deficits or overspending to the tune of
$ZW5.77 Million in 1993 and $ZW0.9 Million in 1998. Revenue
and expenditure did not increase in real value terms because the
increases indicated only cover for inflation. The City is
expanding each year and the delivery of services is getting poorer
due to inadequate financial resources.
International
Cooperation
The
City of Gweru has co-operation arrangements with other
international cities and donor organizations. The exact
amount of donations received through this international
co-operation is not readily available but would certainly run into
millions of dollars. This co-operation has assisted the City
in capacity building and technology transfer in the form of
computer hardware, photocopiers, vehicles, plant and equipment as
well in the implementation of development projects.
City of Gweru
Office of the Ton Clerk
E-mail:
Fax:(263-054) 24309
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