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DEVELOPMENT-ZIMBABWE: Water Shortages in Capital Leave Residents Desperate

Tonderai Kwidini*

HARARE, Jul 31 2007 (IPS) - Taps in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, are running dry even though the city’s main supply dams are more than 60 percent full, according to figures from the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA). With more than half of Harare&#39s three million inhabitants now experiencing water shortages, residents are resorting to desperate measures to find supplies.

Carrying a large bucket to work has become a daily task for Tedious Marembo, employed as a cleaner at a block of government offices in the city. This building is never without water, because it houses three government ministries. So Marembo fills his bucket at work to provide water for his wife and two children who live in Kuwadzana, a poor suburb in the south-west of Harare.

"My wife has to walk a long distance to get water at a church in my neighbourhood where a borehole was sunk, (and) she has to pay 50,000 dollars for a bucket. The only way I can help her cope with household chores is to carry with me a 20-litre bucket to bring water from my work place," he said.

At the official exchange rate, 50,000 Zimbabwe dollars is worth 200 U.S. dollars; at the black-market rate, however, it would only buy 36 U.S. cents at the time of writing. On average, civil servants earn four million Zimbabwe dollars – a little over 22 U.S. dollars per month, at unofficial rates.

Harare has experienced intermittent water shortages for some two years now, due mainly to poor management and ageing infrastructure. Water experts from a Scandinavian development agency who preferred to remain anonymous said ZINWA management was inadequate because the water authority was not run by professionals, but rather by political appointees hired by Water Resources and Infrastructural Development Minister Munacho Mutezo.

The experts believe the capital&#39s water distribution system, built long before independence in 1980, has gone without proper maintenance for many years. Critically important pumps that have an expected lifespan of between 15 and 20 years had not been replaced since they were installed, for instance.

Sanitation has gone the way of water provision, as members of the Mashapa household – also in Kuwadzana – can attest. A blocked pipe caused a fetid pool of sewage to build up around their house, and this outflow now slowly winds its way through the suburb to a nearby stream.

"We are locking children in the house. They can no longer play outside because of the danger of contracting diseases. Cholera is right in our midst; we have reported to ZINWA and they came…but as soon as they left the problem started (again); we now don’t even know what to do and who to tell," said Olivia Mashapa, mother of the family.

While the Mashapa children may be kept away from the sewage, others are not: primary school children who use a path alongside the Mashapa home are obliged to pick their way through waste matter, while other children play in the effluent – and are exposed to water borne diseases.

At the far end of the suburb, still more residents are at risk, as they buy vegetables from vendors who sell their wares right next to open sewage. Many toilets in this area are blocked and can no longer be used.

"I did not bath today; I have been up and down the suburbs looking for water. Sometimes we get the water from the main local authority office, but today they are refusing to let us into their premises to fetch water, although we are still paying our water bills in full," said Memory Mucherahowa, an elderly street vendor.

For the fortunate few who can afford membership for the city centre gym, visits there have become a necessity – not only for exercise, but also for a shower.

The frequency of service delivery problems increased significantly after the management of Harare’s water system was transferred earlier this year from the City Council to ZINWA. Opposition party members believe the transfer was based more on political considerations than managerial criteria.

Two reports tabled recently in Zimbabwe’s House of Assembly by the parliamentary portfolio committee on local government made it clear that ZINWA, a parastatal, lacked funds, equipment and above all, the expertise to run the city’s water affairs.

"Although ZINWA reiterates that it has the capacity to take over the entirety of water and sewerage services in the country&#39s urban areas, local authorities and the public feel that ZINWA is not able to undertake this task," one of the reports stated.

"In view of the evidence gathered, the committee recommends that the cabinet reconsider the directive as the takeover of the services from the city of Harare has proved that ZINWA has no capacity."

Government has however not implemented recommendations for the city’s water management to be returned to the council, and ZINWA is in the process of extending its reach to other cities and towns including the country’s second largest city, Bulawayo.

IPS was not able to get comment from ZINWA about the complaints made against it.

The water shortages constitute just one of many difficulties confronting Harare, and Zimbabwe as a whole. Runaway inflation and high unemployment have driven many into poverty – and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) estimates that just over two million of the country&#39s approximately 13 million citizens will experience food shortages "as early as the third quarter of 2007".

This figure "will rise to 4.1 million at the peak of the crisis in the months before the next main harvest in April 2008," the WFP website goes on to say.

Economic difficulties are paralleled by a political crisis that has resulted in a number of disputed elections, and widespread human rights abuses.

* This feature is the first in a two-part series on water shortages in Zimbabwe. The second item, &#39DEVELOPMENT-ZIMBABWE: The City of "Passport Size" Ablutions&#39, focuses on the water situation in Zimbabwe&#39s second largest city, Bulawayo.