The water crisis in Harare has to be dealt with as a matter of urgency before a cholera epidemic explodes.
Ropafadzo Mapimhidze
The lack of clean water in and around Harare is a matter of great concern that requires effort by all stakeholders to stop a disease outbreak.
Mabvuku and a lot many other residential areas have been experiencing this shortage resulting in residents digging wells to access this life-saving liquid.
Nearly a thousand people have already been received for treatment and this epidemic may spread rapidly like what happened during the 2007-08 era.
But the sad thing is that Harare City Continues billing high water statements based on estimates to such areas which is a very annoying.
Greendale, Letombo Park, Tynwald North, Zimre, and many other areas have been faced with such a crisis for many years and yet residents are forking out money to settle bills where no service has been delivered.
This also applies to refuse collection which is as erratic as ever.
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A few weeks ago I had an altercation with a street cleaner that had seen me emptying garbage from my home which had not been collected for nearly three weeks.
She said what I was doing was wrong because the skip bin located at the corner of George Silundika and First Street was meant for garbage from the city’s streets.
I asked her that so what should I do faced with such a scenario which seems to repeat itself over and over again.
She warned me that I should not repeat this act because it could get me fined.
Can someone out there at Town House explain to me what by-law I contravened?
I have been taking garbage to that skip bin over the past three years whenever refuse collection trucks have not done their rounds.
Some residents resort to dumping this garbage along the roadsides, attracting flies, which we all know transport diseases to homes.
Coupled with the shortage of water supplies, there is no doubt that cholera and other water borne diseases will hit Harare and outlying areas like Chitungwiza and Ruwa hardest.
Water is a basic human right and should be made available at all times but most households go for days or even months without it.
Most homes in high density suburbs accommodate at least two to three families and the lack of water can be a messy affair.
It’s so messy that so much garbage is accumulated and thrown away at some open in the various neighbourhoods.
Most people do this as a last resort and no matter how many times reports are made over non collection of rubbish, no one seems to care.
Its excuses and excuses all the time and yet they demand so much money come month end.
Last weekend, a refuse truck sped off in Tynwald North leaving the full garbage filled plastic garbage bins at our gates and doorsteps.
We were later told that it was a sign of protest by council workers were allegedly on a go slow in protest over salaries and working conditions.
Some of these refuse collection workers ask for food and drink before they can give you a new refuse plastic bin. Most residents, at least where I live, buy bin liners from supermarkets, because bin supplies are erratic.
The water crisis has apparently created so much business to water haulers that sell to the privileged few that have water tanks.
Water for a family of five people requires at least 15 000 litres per month which cost a total $180 and yet that is money that can easily boost council coffers.
Some of the water being sold is believed to be council water which is treated and sold to desperate residents.
But the truth is that only the rich can afford to buy, including council officials that apparently also buy water from these water haulers.
Why can’t council invest in boreholes and dot them at various points especially in the high density areas?
Why can’t we also have skip bins in residential areas so that it makes it easier for refuse collectors to target just one point?
These would do in areas like Hatcliffe, Dzivaresekwa Extension and Mabvuku where there is a high concentration of people living there, where I have seen rubbish mounds that rarely get cleared.
The stench from these heaps is stomach-churning, disgusting and upsetting.
So when a street cleaner tells me that it is an offense to dispose of garbage from my home at a skip bin, when I am trying to avoid a situation where I am driven to dump garbage on the roadsides, really baffles me.
The cleaner actually advised me to dump the rubbish at Town House. Perhaps that is the drastic measure residents should take so that City Fathers can wake up from their comfort zones.
I think, stress levels in Harareans are just too high and Harare City Council is further compounding this problem. I agree totally with a psychologist that said Harare is a city full of depressed people.
They have endured suffering ranging from unemployment and their failure to meet day to day needs for their families. But I personally would want to know what by-law I violated for dumping garbage at a city skip bin.
