JOHANNESBURG, 25 February 2008 (IRIN) - Service delivery has collapsed in Zimbabwe's second largest city, Bulawayo, after local authorities recently announced that the municipality was insolvent and unable to cater to the needs of its almost two million residents. The council could not pay salaries in January and employees have been on a go-slow since then.

Refuse collection and maintenance have come to a halt: repairs to potholes and burst sewers have been affected, as has the procurement of medicines for council clinics.

The situation has been compounded by the central government's failure to approve the council's supplementary budget since September 2007, and local authorities cannot increase tariffs without this approval.

Despite the government's recent announcement that the National Incomes and Pricing Commission (NIPC) would approve council budgets, no funds have moved yet.

"The entire city is stinking - as you can see, all this rubbish piling up has not been collected for two months now and we risk a cholera outbreak very soon ... the situation is worse when it rains, as the garbage is blocking the drainage system," complained Nathan Mlilo, a hardware store owner, pointing to a heap of rubbish outside his shop on the city's busy Main Street.

Health services have also been disrupted and drug shortages were evident at most of the council clinics IRIN visited. "Patients come here for diagnosis only, and are then referred to private clinics, while those without money and medical aid schemes are told to go back home," said a nurse at Mzilikazi clinic, in one of the city's high-density suburbs.

A shortage of ambulances is also impairing medical services: only two out of 40 are in use because the spares needed to repair the others are either unobtainable or unaffordable.

Cash crunch

Council spokesman Phathisa Nyathi said the cash crunch had forced the city to suspend all capital projects. "Council is completely broke, and unless and until the NIPC approves the council budget and allows us to review rates periodically, then services will continue to deteriorate, as the hyperinflationary environment does not allow us to complete projects."

NIPC chairman Godwill Masimirembwa said his commission was currently working on council budgets and would soon make an announcement.

Water crisis

The cash shortage has left the municipality unable to purify enough water for Bulawayo's requirements and it has had to resort to water cuts, meaning it has been turning off supplies to various parts of the city at different times.

The city needs five metric tonnes of aluminium sulphate daily to purify raw water from its five supply dams at a cost of Z$14 billion (about US$933 at the parallel market rate of Z$15million to US$1). "Very soon we will run out of the chemicals and we will have no choice except to stop water supplies to residents," Nyathi said.

Blessing Chebundo, chairman of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee for Health and Child Welfare, warned that the situation in Bulawayo posed a serious health risk, with the possibility of outbreaks of communicable diseases such as cholera and dysentery, or other diarrhoeal diseases. He said it was imperative that government allow the council to charge competitive rates to be able to function.

The council has recently introduced a water levy to help cover the high cost of water-purification chemicals. Residents will be expected to pay a levy of Z$1,621,000 (US$0.10)) per month, while non-domestic users will fork out Z$24 million (about US$1.60) per month.

Migration of employees

The council has also been hit by staff shortages as skilled employees make their way to neighbouring countries in search of better salaries. Bulawayo's fire prevention division recently shut down two of its substations because it no longer had the staff to man them. Chief fire officer Edward Mpofu said the service had also been curtailed by the lack of foreign exchange to procure fuel and buy spares to maintain the fleet of fire engines.

Nomalanga Moyo, a vegetable vendor, said: "There is nothing we can do. Council has no money, so we have to swerve [to avoid] potholes, and if the water is not available we just queue at the boreholes sunk in by non-governmental organisations. There is nothing we can do, council is broke."

Bulawayo's plight reflects the situation in the rest of the country. Zimbabwe is facing a crippling economic crisis, characterised by skyrocketing inflation that has reached 100,000 percent and is still rising, shortages of foreign currency and most of the basic commodities.

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