|
Back to Index
Gweru
adopts $100bn budget
Richard Musazulwa,
The Standard (Zimbabwe)
October
31, 2004
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/read.php?st_id=888
GWERU city stakeholders
have adopted a $100 billion budget for 2005, which places much emphasis
on addressing the city's water and sanitation problems.
Although the proposed budget was to be officially announced at a
special council meeting last week, the city's executive mayor, Sesel
Zvidzai, confirmed the city had agreed on the proposals, which now
await the approval of Dr Ignatious Chombo, the Minister of Local
Government, Public Works and National Housing.
The mayor said
although the budget was prepared with input from Chombo's ministry,
he was happy that all stakeholders had collectively agreed to put
water and sanitation problems on high priority.
"Once we address
these (water and sanitation problems) being faced by our city, we
will be able to generate more revenue," he said.
Currently the
city loses 50 percent of its precious water due to constant pipe
bursts, which occur in the city. Many of the pipes are worn out
and need replacement.
"We expect that
by December next year, we would have reduced the percentage of un-accounted
for water to 20 percent and this will help bring additional revenue
to the council," Zvidzai said.
According to
the budget proposals, rates and other charges will go up by 90 percent.
The town clerk,
Godfrey Nhemachena, said initially the budget had been pegged at
87 percent after consultations with stakeholders, but for accounting
purposes, it was agreed to raise it by 3 percent to 90 percent so
as to cushion it against inflation.
Last year the
council implemented a $31 billion budget, which saw rates and other
charges going up by 450 percent. This was spread over four quarters.
After successfully
clearing off a $1.2 billion bank overdraft, the council suspended
all rates increases for the two last quarters.
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
TOP
|
