Community Water Alliance (CWA) is pushing residents to support a political party that places water issues as a priority.
BY VENERANDA LANGA
The pressure group said service delivery issues will be important in this election.
“The days left to the election require critical thinking about what our votes will produce in the water sector – whether our votes will produce enough gallons of potable water for us and if they will increase the budget on water from 2,5% to at least 10%,” CWA said in a statement.
“We should think whether our votes will place responsible leaders in positions of authority and those that feel obligated to respect, protect and fulfil the human rights to water, do away with cholera and typhoid and ensure proper management of wetlands and catchments.”
Combined Harare Residents’ Association director, Mfundo Mlilo blasted the calibre of councillors fielded by different political parties, saying they do not seem to have the capacity to deal with critical service delivery issues. “Right now, a lot of voters and residents are concerned about the calibre of candidates for local authority elections, and in the outgoing councils, there were serious problems pertaining to the quality of the councillors who failed to deliver.
“Even in this election, most political parties have not managed to field candidates of good quality. Most of their candidates are not up to scratch. The seriousness of council is that a councillor might be chosen to head the finance committee which oversees a half a million budget, or even approve city plans. This requires councillors of good calibre,” Mlilo said.
The spokesperson of the Harare Metropolitan Residents’ Forum, Marvellous Khumalo said residents were tired of leaders that promised a lot, but were short on delivery.
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Khumalo said Zanu PF in its manifesto promised safe potable water, yet for several years, they have been talking of building dams like Kunzvi, but nothing has materialised.
“In this election, we will vote for someone who has seriously considered water provision in their manifesto as water is pivotal for the health of the people. What we want are plans on how they are going to achieve water provisions, not just promises. Zanu PF has been promising to complete dam projects. It is not enough to be promised, the water issue should be addressed,” Khumalo said.
