Dear Editor,
Charity will always be flooded when the rain falls because vendors and businessmen have been allowed by the Charity/Urasara NDC to occupy the drainage trenches to sell their goods. They will litter the whole area with plastic bottles, cardboard boxes and other things from their daily sales, and the NDC is culpable of the flooding for allowing these practices. Some businessmen and vendors will dispose of their garbage in the trenches in the afternoon after their daily sales, in full view of the NDC officers and councillors. When the rain falls the koker is silted up and the water cannot get out from the land, so it cannot drain into the river.
It all started in 2002 when a team of planners and myself from the CH&PA were asked to visit Charity to see what was taking place. The Minister of Housing Shaik Baksh, wanted to make Charity a secondary township in those days, and we were invited by the NDC chairman Mr Harrop to come up with a zoning plan to avoid the flooding of Charity.The CH&PA team decided that those who squatted on the shoulder of the road and on the streets should be removed and re-located in the new housing scheme, and the Minister of Housing asked the planners to identify a new scheme so these people could be removed urgently.
A large plot of land was identified in the Charity second scheme, and the Minister then gave the go ahead to survey the land and divide it into house lots. There were over 15000 lots after the survey was done. The basic infrastructure was completed with streets, lights and water; a first and second certificate were issued by the Central Board of Health; and residents were encouraged to apply for a house lot, including those who squatted on the road and street shoulders. This has happened a long time ago, and those who were given house lots in the new scheme still remain there.
Some removed from the area; they grew bigger and bigger with more stalls over the trenches and continued to litter the area with garbage. It’s the NDC’s job now to enforce the CH&PA zoning plan so Charity can be a secondary township in an orderly manner and free the place from flooding. Until this takes place, Charity will be a garbage township and a place of litter bugs. The NDC needs to get its act together before it’s too late and there is more flooding.
Yours faithfully,
Mohamed Khan
