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NewsDay

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Provision of water still a pipe dream

News
The early morning chill cut through Nakai’s (not her real name) thin clothes as she hurried along a familiar path leading to the water well which is nestled in the bushy area a few metres from her house in Mabvuku high-density surburb, Harare.

By Phyllis Mbanje

The early morning chill cut through Nakai’s (not her real name) thin clothes as she hurried along a familiar path leading to the water well which is nestled in the bushy area a few metres from her house in Mabvuku high-density surburb, Harare.

She was more concerned about getting to the water point ahead of her neighbours than the fact that harm could be lurking in the shadows. And as fate would have it, darkness was indeed waiting to pounce on her that day and a few hours later her story was all over the news.

Police writing on their official Twitter account confirmed the incident. Her attacker had covered her face with a cloth and when she became unconscious the sadist had violated her limp body. Mabvuku like many surbubs in Harare has gone for years without tap water, forcing many people to wake up at wee hours to scout for the rare commodity. Unfortunately women are mostly the ones that carry out this chore and face the risk of being raped or harmed just like Nakai. They have also fallen prey to waterpoint barons who harass them verbally and sexually.

Schoolchildren too have not been spared and spend more hours fetching water instead of doing school work.

Provision of water has remained a pipe dream for many Harare residents with the city fathers seemingly clueless on how to solve crisis. Of late, the situation has actually escalated with many suburbs going for months without water.

Harare is one of the cities in the country with serious water challenges. There is also the huge amount of water that is lost through leakages and city authorities admit that around 40% of water is lost through leakages.

For years, the water woes have persisted unabated and with no clear solution in sight other than ambitious projects that have never really taken off the ground.

Besides exposing women and young girls to all forms of abuse, the water challenges also pose serious health risks particularly in the face of diseases like typhoid and cholera that thrive in the absence of water.

Incidentally, Harare’s high-density suburbs have become the epicentre of these medieval diseases.

This is explains why every year the country burdens the health delivery system with patients suffering from all sorts of waterborne diseases. Like Nakai, many people use open wells or boreholes that have long been condemned. There has been outbreaks of cholera and typhoid in areas like Glen View and Budiriro and in many cases the source of the calamity has been found to be contaminated water sources.

According to the United Nations, water-borne disease threatens millions of lives every day worldwide and is believed to be the underlying cause of 10 million child deaths each year.

Investing in the infrastructure of, and education about, sanitation and long-term water delivery services can drastically reduce this threat.

Open defacation has also become rife as toilets no longer have running water and because the bucket system is often burdensome, many relieve themselves in the bushes. It is no longer a rural practice, but has actually creeped into the urban areas as well.

And because the safe water sources are few, people will likely spend longer hours looking for such and this has reduced productive hours significantly.

Some have resorted to digging boreholes in their backyard regardless of the negative efforts.

The city fathers have acknowledged the water crisis and have assured the residents that they would roll out plans that would ease the crisis.

“We are working on increasing production capacity at Morton Jaffray Waterworks by carrying out repairs of filters and other maintenance works and we hope that by end of the year the production capacity will go up to between 520-600 megalitres per day,” said Michael Chideme, council spokesperson.

Chideme said they were also working on reducing leakages and improve on reaction time to water bursts to within 24 hours.

Early this year, three engineers from the water department were suspended on allegations of gross indiscipline and abrogation of duty. This was said to be part of a deliberate move to improve service delivery.

So now all hopes are pinned on the much-awaited US$680 million Kunzvi-Musami Dam project. About US$259m has been allocated for the project in the 2020 National Budget which is expected to solve the capital city’s water challenges.

The dam will be constructed right at the point where Nora and Nyaguwe rivers in Goromonzi district converge. A Chinese firm, Sino-Hydro will be in charge and once completed is expected to produce 250 000 cubic meters of water for the city daily.

Speaking on this, Chideme said the construction of the dam which lies with the Ministry of Water was a welcome development.

Commenting on smart water meters, Chideme said they had concluded a pilot project.

“What remains is the implementation of which we are talking to various organisations for financing a citywide roll out,” he said