NYANGA — A serious government cannot solve the perennial water crisis in the country’s urban settlements using boreholes as a long-term solution, a United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) water expert has said.
Report by Blessed Mhlanga/Moses Matenga
Unicef Water and Sanitation chief Kiwe Sebunya said there was serious need to rehabilitate old and obsolete water treatment plants around the country if the urban water crisis was to be solved.
“Boreholes are never a long term solution for urban water problems. They were drilled as short term solutions to mitigate a crisis which was at hand and not as a long term solution. No government in the world can drill boreholes as a solution to water problems in urban areas because boreholes are rural technology and is not a real long term solution for urban areas,” Sebunya said.
Sebunya, who was speaking at a Unicef Media Capacity Development workshop in Nyanga yesterday, however, said massive investment was needed to restore water reticulation infrastructure to a point where reliable water supplies became a reality. “The amount of money needed to get back the systems to where they were is very huge and without giving figures, it could be bigger than the national budget,” he said.
His utterances came at a time most urban areas now rely on borehole water, including Harare, Bulawayo, Kadoma, Gweru and Chegutu, following a near complete collapse of water supply systems.
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Kadoma is heavily reliant on borehole water even at public hospitals owing to poor water pumping capacity which is also heavily affected by erratic power supplies.
Kadoma Mayor Peter Matambo conceded that council realised that boreholes were not a long term solution for urban areas, but said due to lack of funding and collapse of the economy councils were now being forced to rely on them.
