Published by the government of Zimbabwe
5 November 2008
editorial
HARARE and Chitungwiza both have areas very short of water.
Cholera outbreaks have occurred in both municipalities as a result of people drawing water from contaminated wells.
Something needs to be done, and done now.
All Harare City Council and its mayor can say is that they would do it better and that water should be given back to the city.
The Government, in remarks by the Minister of Local Government, Public Works and Urban Development, Cde Ignatius Chombo, has its doubts since the city seems totally unable to cope with the far simpler task of rubbish removal.
We would tend to agree that simply transferring back the Greater Harare water supplies to the city council would be unlikely to achieve anything; the city failed before and shows no sign that it can even replace a bulb in a traffic light, let alone collect rubbish.
If the city was so capable, it would not have lost the control over water treatment in the first place.
But arguing about who should control water while people die is neither right nor useful.
The objective -- of the Government, Zinwa and the city council -- should surely be to ensure that everyone gets enough water to maintain their health, that such water is available frequently and is available regularly.
There are major problems at the water treatment works and at some of the pump stations that deliver water to Harare, Chitungwiza, Ruwa, Epworth and Norton.
Whoever runs the water supplies cannot wave a magic wand and get all equipment fixed and adequate chemicals delivered instantly.
What Harare, Chitungwiza and their satellite centres need is some effective crisis management, and a willingness for all involved to pull together and stop people dying.
Bulawayo has been through far worse crises over water in the last decade, seeing dams dry up.
Yet that city has yet to lose people to cholera.
There, a proper crisis committee was formed that laid down policies and ensured that the responsible authorities implemented these.
The starting point for Harare is to remember that water is treated and pumped from Morton Jaffray Waterworks every day.
It is not enough for everyone to use to
water gardens, wash cars and waste. But it would be enough to give every resident a reasonable supply of safe water for all domestic needs.
Over half the population of Harare and Chitungwiza do, in fact, get a continuous supply of water.
A few more get water reasonably regularly, at least for a few hours a day or every other day.
And more than a quarter of the population gets nothing; they seem to have been written off.
No one cares.
The immediate problem is to ensure an equitable division of available water, so that everyone has some, and preferably has some every day.
By turning valves and using pumps, it should be possible to rotate water cuts, in the same way that Zesa rotates its power cuts.
The total reluctance of Zinwa to even consider such a plan is what makes so many wish for the return of water to the city council, in the vague and unsubstantiated hope that the city could do better.
The second plank of a proper emergency water policy would be to cut waste. The ban on hosepipes is seen as a joke, and is continually ignored.
Pipe breaks are not repaired, and thousands of cubic metres of treated water run into the drains every day.
The third plank of a proper water policy would be to have bowsers, boreholes and tanks in those relatively few places that a proper water-rationing scheme could not reach.
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