Zimbabwe’s environment minister petitioned over city of Harare poor water quality

By Wallace Mawire [caption id="attachment_43106" align="alignleft" width="403"] Albert Mazula, HRT Board
Chairperson[/caption] Concerned citizens and residents’ representatives of the city of Harare are putting pressure on Zimbabwe’s new administration to address issues of poor water quality which has been supplied to residents for a long time. The Harare Residents’ Trust (HRT) is currently in the process of soliciting for signatures from residents of the city of Harare and Chitungwiza on the poor water quality being supplied to the two cities. The petition is to be presented to Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri, Minister of Environment, Water and Climate. According to the petition signed by Albert Mazula, HRT Board Chairperson, the trust says that on behalf of residents of Harare metropolitan province it is unsatisfied by the poor quality of water being distributed by the Harare City Council’s water and sanitation department to their houses. The residents trust says that it has noted with consistent concern that the city of Harare has dismally failed to provide clean and potable water to the ratepayers. It is reported in the petition that residents of the city of Harare and Chitungwiza are receiving water with unpleasant smell, the water is green-brownish in colour, with froth when boiled, with visible brown-greenish mucus like sediments. It is also reported that there is unavailability of water to 55% of households out of the 250 000 billed properties in the city of Harare. In the petition, the HRT says that residents would want the water and sanitation department of the city of Harare to provide them with clear water free from contamination. In the same petition, the trust says that residents demand that the water and sanitation department of the city of Harare take concrete measures to regularly monitor and control the discharge of untreated sewerage into streams that feed water into Harare’s main water bodies especially Lake Chivero. “This contamination has damaged the environment. Further, wetlands are being destroyed daily as councilors and officials collaborate with land barons parceling out land reserved for wetlands, exposing Harare to water shortages in the future,” the petition reads. It is also added that the increased pollution of Lake Chivero forces the city of Harare to use around 9 water treatment chemicals instead of a possible 3, increasing the cost of delivering water to the consumers. In the petition, Environment and water minster Muchinguri-Kashiri has been asked to compel the city of Harare to ring fence the water account to ensure that all water revenue is used only to upgrade, expand and maintain the water pumping, treatment and distribution infrastructure. It is reported that previously the city of Harare retained 55% while Harare water received 45% from the water revenue but this has been stopped. The residents trust urges the minister to direct the city of Harare treasury department to stop from interfering with the water revenues for payment of salaries and allowances to council employees. The minister is also asked to direct the city of Harare to collaborate with other government agencies to drastically reduce the pollution of water bodies and to control operations of heavy industries that are deliberately polluting water bodies. Also the minister has been asked to urge the city of Harare to put necessary measures to replace all underground water pipes which have become obsolete and are leaking resulting in 60% of treated water being lost. “We the undersigned residents of Harare and Chitungwiza, led by the HRT Board Chairperson, with legitimate claim to clean and potable water which reflects its vale and recognition of human rights as enshrined in the Zimbabwean constitution chapter 4 under section 77, submit the above petition and declaration and expect your intervention before we lose lives to typhoid and cholera. This should feed into your 100 day plan as enunciated in several government pronouncements to improve the lives of citizens,” the petition to the minister reads.