HEAVY rains that lashed Masvingo last week exposed the oldest city's poor drainage systems and lack of preparedness after floods destroyed property worth thousands of dollars in the city.
Citizen journalists last Thursday captured a flooded Mucheke River washing away Chimusana Bridge, which is under construction.
The bridge links the city centre with all high-density and southern suburbs.
There was a traffic jam at the Mucheke River bridge as motorists and pedestrians took long to cross because of the floods, revealing the need to accelerate widening of the access bridge and completion of the Chimusana Bridge.
Residents and property owners in the town reported widespread flooding in their residential areas, shops and streets.
Some posted images of collapsed walls and video footage of themselves battling floods in their homes.
Masvingo provincial chairman of the Civil Protection Unit, Ruvimbo Pazvakavambwa, said she was attending first lady Auxillia Mnangagwa’s event and could not comment.
Mnangagwa later passed through a Masvingo OK shop for some shopping, shutting the retail shop from other consumers as her convoy closed access roads to the shop.
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Masvingo council chief executive, Edward Mukaratirwa, said he could not comment on the damage saying the flood videos were photoshopped.
"Send me specific street names and places where these occurred and I will be able to respond,” Mukaratirwa said.
“We cannot depend on videos because in the modern times these can be edited.
“Clipsham is a new suburb with new drainage systems and the possibility of it happening there is remote.”
Clipsham residents said there was no maintenance of the new infrastructure as drainage systems failed, resulting in several perimeter walls collapsing.
Some houses were flooded and water reached waist level, according to the residents.
"We have always said we are neglected because we are in an area where the Masvingo Rural District Council and Masvingo Municipality haggle. We have gone for almost two months without water, refuse collection and to add to our misery the floods visited," said one resident.
A desperate woman posted a video of floods breaching her perimeter wall while on the other side her house was flooded.
"There in your full view floods from higher ground have come into my yard and washed away my perimeter wall," she said, distressed.
Clipsham residents in Masvingo's newest and most expensive suburb said they felt let down by the municipality.
The suburb, which is located off Beitbridge road south of the town has modern houses and some of them are perched on hills making it the most scenic and perhaps most exquisite.
