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George Maponga in Masvingo
Masvingo City Council has applied for a $120 million loan from a Chinese financial institution to upgrade water and sewer conveyance infrastructure to cater for more than 2 000 new housing units that will soon be built in the country’s oldest city.

The stands were serviced by private players. Private housing developers led by Masvingo Housing Consortium recently developed more than 2 000 housing stands, bringing to 8 000 the number of residential stands that have been developed in the city over the past four years.

The housing backlog in Masvingo halved from an estimated 15 000 people who were on the city housing waiting list about five years ago to 7 000 people.

Most of the beneficiaries of the housing stands that were developed in the Victoria Ranch area are low-income earners including civil servants and members of the uniformed forces.

The city recently approved the development of housing units on over 1 000 stands serviced by Masvingo Housing Consortium at Lot A of Victoria Ranch with approval of a similar number of housing units on land serviced by NSSA in Runyararo West also taking place.

Town Clerk Mr Adolph Gusha yesterday said the housing boom in Masvingo was forcing council to expedite the upgrading of its infrastructure to cope with the envisaged demand for sewer and water reticulation services. He said council was currently negotiating for funding to finance the sewer and water reticulation upgrade.

“We are busy doing the paperwork so that we can get a $120 million loan from China Eximbank to fund the upgrade of our water and sewer systems,’’ he said.

“The infrastructure that we have will not be able to cope with the number of new housing units that are coming up and we hope to access the loan soon,’’ added Mr Gusha.

He paid tribute to Masvingo Housing Consortium and NSSA for investing in housing development in Masvingo a situation he said had drastically reduced the housing backlog.

“We want to ensure that we help the Zanu-PF Government led by President Mugabe in providing cheap access to housing. We are targeting mainly civil servants and members of the uniformed forces, most of who were struggling to buy stands,’’ Mr Gusha said.

“We are happy that we have connected clean water and build roads while development of the sewer system is underway at Victoria Ranch, where some of our beneficiaries are paying as little as $60 instalments for housing stands per month,’’ said Mr Wellington Mahwende, who is the chairperson of the Masvingo Housing Consortium.

He said they had come up with 10 to 15-year plans for their clients to afford them ample time to pay for their stands while concurrently going ahead with the construction of their houses.