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Health for all call an illusion for Harare
Augustine Mukaro/Grace Kombora, The Independent (Zimbabwe)
April 29, 2005

http://www.theindependent.co.zw/news/2005/April/Friday29/2197.html

"THE flatulence of an angry god," is how one resident described the overpowering smell that was blasted into the atmosphere by the malfunctioning Union Carbide pesticide plant in the Indian city of Bhopal in 1984.

Thousands of people died in the disaster and many continued to succumb months after the incident. One would be forgiven for believing that the offended god of Bhopal had relocated to the environs of Lake Chivero.

This is not an angry deity but a collective effort of commissioners running the city of Harare and councillors in Chitungwiza.

The sewerage treatment in Harare does not work while the city’s infrastructure continues to crumble as the commission running the city has failed to turn around the fortunes of the politically manipulated Town House.

Raw sewage is flowing unchecked into the city’s sources of drinking water.

The dark sludge cascading towards the lake every day is spreading to form green algae which are poisonous to fish which are dying in their thousands daily.

The situation has been exacerbated by Chitungwiza town council which has equally failed to deal with sewerage problems. In Zengeza 3 and St Mary’s, sewage flows in streams which empty into Nyatsime and Manyame rivers and eventually into Lake Chivero.

The same water is pumped into treatment plants in Norton where it is supposed to be cleaned with chemicals to make it potable. The chemicals are in short supply and the cleaning process is compromised. City fathers and their mother at Town House contend that the water is safe, perhaps because there are no tadpoles coming out of faucets but scientists say dangerous microbes have taken shelter in the water. There are also harmful heavy metals like lead in the water. It is dangerous to drink.

A visit to Lake Chivero last week revealed that a health crisis looms in Harare as pollution continues unabated. Chivero and Darwendale supply water to the city of Harare.

Residents who live in the vicinity of the lake said the Harare City Council was disposing of raw sewage into Marimba River. Marimba feeds into Lake Chivero.

"We have been living here for the past seven years and have experienced the stench from the lake in the last two years," said one resident.

"The city council is dumping sewerage into Marimba every day."

Environmentalists and health experts warn that Harare is sitting on a time bomb. "Harare residents are drinking contaminated water and a health hazard is looming," said John Rodrigues, chairman of the Zimbabwe Conservation Taskforce.

He said the rising levels of pollution in Lake Chivero were continuing as incompetent people were running the affairs of the city.

Harare is being run by a commission handpicked by Local Government minister Ignatious Chombo. The commission has been overseeing the day-to-day running of the city since the dismissal of elected mayor Elias Mudzuri last year.

Mudzuri was elected mayor on a Movement for Democratic Change ticket in 2002. Since Mudzuri’s ouster service delivery in the city has been in free-fall.

Ghastly sights of garbage piling on street corners are common in both high and low-density areas with residents saying rubbish had not been collected for months.

The lame excuse from council was the shortage of fuel and the expiry of contracts signed with private garbage collectors.

"Council has not collected refuse here for two months," a visibly angry Mbare Residents Association chairman, Israel Mabhou, said.

"Our last option would be to carry these bins and the rotting rubbish and dump them at Town House. We are sick and tired of their excuses," he said, pointing to a smelly mountain of rubbish between Matapi Flats and OK Zimbabwe supermarket behind Mbare-Musika.

Mabhou blamed the Makwavarara-led commission for the collapse of the city’s infrastructure.

Rodrigues said the city was overpopulated and this was impacting on the sewerage treatment works.

Health experts say the prevalence of contaminated water is a boon for water borne diseases.

The chairperson of Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) Mike Davies said there was a need for a democratically-elected commission, accountable to Harare residents.

"People need to democratically select a commission for themselves," he said.

Davies went on: "The issue of clean water is not a question of technically purifying the water but a need to examine the whole process."

Most residents blamed the city council for the dirty water which spurts through their taps.

"The commission running the city council is insensitive to the health of Harare residents," said one resident.

One analyst echoed the same sentiments when he said: "Health for all by the year 2010 does not apply to Harare residents."

Arcadia Residents Association representative, Angus Martens, said residents and companies had turned Mukuvisi River banks into dumping sites.

"There are no council services to talk of," Martens said. "Homeowners and companies in this neighbourhood have resorted to dumping rubbish along the Mukuvisi River and the open space behind the National Railways of Zimbabwe main station."

He blamed the crumbling council service delivery system on political interference by central government.

The Zimbabwe Independent crew discovered that it was only a matter of time before an outbreak of disease hits Tafara-Mabvuku as residents have resorted to drinking unclean water from streams in the suburbs. The streams’ main sources of water have been sewers and water from burst pipes.

Leslie Gwindi, the city council spokesperson, denied allegations that the water was dirty saying the city provides treated water. Government recently said it was taking over the sewerage and water provision tasks in the two urban centres but the situation has not improved. It is actually getting worse.

In Harare, suburbs in the east of the city have been without water for more than two weeks.

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