Zimbabwe: Majority of Zimbabweans Pan Government Performance On Water and Sanitation Services

9 July 2026
Afrobarometer (Accra)
By Stephen Ndoma

Half of citizens say their household experienced repeated shortages of clean water during the past year.

Key findings

  • Water supply ranks fifth among the most important problems that Zimbabweans want their government to address. It is of greater concern among rural and poor citizens than among their urban and better-off counterparts.
  • Six in 10 citizens (60%) say their household experienced a shortage of clean water at least once during the previous year. About half (49%) say this happened "several times," "many times," or "always" - a share that has increased by 10 percentage points over the past decade.
  • Only 37% of enumeration areas (EAs) visited by Afrobarometer teams had piped water systems accessible to most households, while 54% had tubewells or boreholes.
  • A majority (56%) of citizens rely on water sources outside their compound. ▪ The most common water sources in Zimbabwe are tubewells/boreholes (cited by 54% of respondents as their main source), piped public or community water systems (25%), and protected dug wells (24%).
  • Almost half (45%) of Zimbabweans say they have changed water sources or reduced their water usage in the past five years because of changes in climate.
  • Sanitation infrastructure is limited: Only 31% of surveyed EAs have sewage systems.
  • One in four respondents (25%) have toilets inside the home, while twice as many (51%) use toilet facilities outside the home but inside the compound. Another 15% rely on toilets or latrines outside their compound, while 9% say they have no access to such facilities.
  • Seven in 10 citizens (70%) rate government's performance on water and sanitation provision as poor.

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Zimbabwe's Constitution guarantees its citizens the right to potable water and a healthy environment. Despite this promise, access to safe drinking water is estimated at only 64%, while just 36% of citizens have access to basic sanitation services (UNICEF Zimbabwe, 2025). Water problems are exacerbated by climate change, recurrent droughts, a growing population, and dilapidated and inadequate water and sanitation infrastructure in major cities (Sithole & Sithole, 2024; Moyo, 2024).

Pollution is also a major contributor to water insecurity. Lake Chivero and its tributaries are heavily polluted by industrial waste and raw sewage, yet they are expected to serve as Harare's principal water source (British Geological Survey, 2023; Matsengarwodzi, 2025). Waterborne diseases such as cholera, dysentery, and typhoid have hit some areas as recently as June 2024 (World Health Organization, 2024).

In response to water insecurity, the government through its national development plan for 2021-2025 set a target of achieving 90% access to potable water and reducing the share of the population practicing open defecation from 21.7% to 10% by 2025 (UNICEF Zimbabwe, 2021). The National Water Policy (Ministry of Water Resources Development and Management, 2012) and National Sanitation and Hygiene Strategy (2018-2022) guide the development and management of water and sanitation services. A presidential borehole drilling scheme aims to drill and equip a solar-powered borehole in each of the country's 35,000 villages to achieve rural water security (Manomano, 2026). Most recently, the government has moved to privatise the provision of potable water (New Zimbabwe, 2025) while communities have resorted to pooling resources to drill boreholes (Chara, 2024).

Against this background, Afrobarometer survey findings show that water supply ranks as the fifth-most-important problem that Zimbabweans want their government to address. Six in 10 citizens report repeated shortages of clean water, and only a minority have access to sewage systems. These challenges are especially acute in rural areas and among poor populations. Most Zimbabweans express dissatisfaction with the government's performance on the provision of safe water and proper sanitation.

Stephen Ndoma Stephen is the assistant project manager for Southern Africa

Read the original article on Afrobarometer.

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