Addressing
councillors
at
the
recently
held
full
council
meeting,
Mayor
David
Coltart
said
the
city’s
earlier
ambition
to
be
a
“smart
and
transformative
city
by
2025”
had
not
been
realised,
leaving
residents
grappling
with
persistent
water
cuts
and
deteriorating
roads.
“It
is
very
easy
to
say
these
things,
but
it
is
another
thing
entirely
to
deliver
on
that,”
he
told
councillors.
“In
many
respects
the
city
was
not
smart
and
transformative,
with
residents
facing
water
shortages
and
the
roads
being
in
worse
conditions.”
Coltart
said
the
new
target
would
require
a
more
practical,
technology-driven
approach
to
governance,
including
modernising
accounting
and
payment
systems
to
make
them
easily
accessible.
He
said
infrastructure
upgrades
would
also
be
central
to
the
plan,
highlighting
proposals
to
install
solar-powered
street
and
traffic
lights
as
part
of
a
broader
push
towards
renewable
energy.
On
environmental
sustainability,
the
mayor
said
Bulawayo
aimed
to
respond
to
climate
change
through
an
aggressive
tree-planting
programme
of
up
to
5
000
trees,
with
a
preference
for
indigenous
species.
“My
personal
hope
is
to
be
planting
indigenous
trees,
not
exotic
ones,”
he
said,
adding
that
nurseries
and
youth
involvement
would
be
key
to
the
programme’s
success.
However,
water
supply
dominated
the
meeting,
with
Coltart
expressing
frustration
over
delays
in
implementing
technical
recommendations
made
two
years
ago
to
upgrade
key
infrastructure.
Despite
proposals
to
rehabilitate
the
Ncema
Pump
Station
and
major
pipelines
supplying
the
city,
he
said
progress
had
been
slow.
“It
needs
to
be
our
absolute
priority
this
year,”
he
said,
warning
that
failure
to
begin
upgrades
and
procure
new
pipelines
by
the
end
of
the
year
would
amount
to
a
serious
setback.
Coltart
also
pointed
to
funding
shortfalls
for
the
long-delayed
Gwayi-Shangani
Dam
project,
thanking
the
government
for
allocating
ZiG200
million
towards
completing
the
dam
but
noting
that
the
associated
pipeline
would
cost
at
least
US$400
million.
“The
pipeline
is
the
bigger
project,”
he
said,
calling
for
increased
government
funding
to
make
the
scheme
viable.