Water cuts raise spectre of disease outbreaks

Residents of Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, have been forced to use river water because of ongoing breaks in the purified water supply, raising concern over possible outbreaks of waterborne diseases. Like many other urban residents, it's a daily routine for 12-year-old Stella Chiyangwa to walk six kilometres to a river to fetch water for household use - she now lives a life not much different from that of her counterparts in remote rural areas. The suburb of Mabvuku, where Stella lives, often goes without water for days, and sometimes weeks at a time, due to the rundown state of the city's water and sewer reticulation infrastructure. Sources at the Harare city council say the Morton Jaffray Waterworks plant needs a major overhaul of its purification and distribution capacity. But the municipality does not have the resources, and neither does it have the foreign currency needed to import water purifying chemicals. As a result, foreign suppliers have cut credit lines to Harare and now only supply chemicals when paid in advance. These problems have combined to create major water shortages, forcing residents to make use of the Mukuwisi river running through parts of the city. Although bottled mineral water is available in the shops, at a price of just under US $1 it is far beyond the reach of many. Water cuts were initially experienced mainly in the high-density suburbs of the city, but recently the plushest of them, like Glen Lorne, Borrowdale and Graystone Park, have also been without piped water, and the municipality has introduced 24-hour water cuts in some. Although residents in the upmarket low-density suburbs can afford to sink boreholes, those in the overcrowded areas have no such option. Long queues of women carrying heavy buckets to and from unpurified alternative water sources have become a common sight, raising concern that there could be outbreaks of waterborne diseases. Public and household latrines in several high-density suburbs have become blocked and emit a suffocating stench. "The council is not taking its duties seriously," said Kuda Hingi, who lives in the suburb of Eastlea. "Employees do not seem to be dealing with our complaints with any urgency." Residents blame the Harare municipality for their plight and warn that the city is now on the verge of an epidemic because of the lack of water and proper drainage; municipal officials in turn blame the national government, saying the macroeconomic problems causing the crisis are not of their making. The Harare municipality's public relations manager, Leslie Gwindi, said the council was doing all it could to resolve the water crisis but was constrained by the foreign currency problems affecting everyone. He appealed to residents to conserve water until the authorities could raise money to buy the necessary purification chemicals and overhaul the water treatment works.