Zimbabwean News You Can Trust
The government of Zimbabwe has pledged to resolve the water challenges in Harare, as some suburbs are reportedly going for days without the precious liquid whilst places like Mabvuku have not seen a drop of tape water in over 16yrs.
Speaking at a post cabinet media briefing in Harare yesterday, Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Jennfan Muswere outlined a series of unaddressed problems that have dragged most Harare suburbs into a water crisis quagmire.
He added that the government through the presidential rural development programme will drill boreholes in suburbs that are not receiving water from the City of Harare.
“Following reports by the Harare City Council on their failure to provide bulk water to the city, the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development convened a meeting of the National Action Committee on Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH).
“The Committee found out that the main challenges affecting the City of Harare are as follows: heavy pollution of Water Supply Dams (Chivero and Manyame) leading to excessive use of water treatment chemicals; aged units constantly breaking down; aged water supply infrastructure leading to reduction in treatment capacity and high water losses; and failure by City of Harare to pay for water treatment chemicals to meet the current treatment capacity of 520 Megalitres per day.
“The nation is being informed that the Government is fully committed to resolving the Harare water challenges and that of all cities, rural and urban centres. The Government, through the Presidential Rural Development Programme, has drilled 301 boreholes in the past year. Furthermore, a rig has been dedicated to Harare Metropolitan Province and ZINWA will continue the borehole drilling programme, prioritizing suburbs which are not receiving water from the City of Harare,” said the newly appointed Minister.
The infrastructure for piped water in Harare was developed in the 1950s, before Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980, and designed for a population of 300,000 people. Currently, Harare’s greater metropolitan area has about 4.5 million people, more than half of whom have no access to clean water and are at risk of water-borne diseases such as cholera and typhoid.
