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The
spectre of another outbreak of cholera haunts Harare
Takudzwa Munyaka, Mail and Guardian (SA)
November 22, 2013
http://mg.co.za/article/2013-11-22-00-the-spectre-of-another-outbreak-of-cholera-haunts-harare
Five years after
more than 4 000 people died during a cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe's
capital, Harare, Human Rights Watch says the city is at risk of
another outbreak. And it does not help that officials are denying
the severity of the sanitation situation.
According to
a Human Rights Watch report
released this week, Harare's dilemma is a bursting population that
is burdening its old infrastructure. The city still uses the same
pipes that it did in the 1980s, when its population was 600 000.
Now it tops four million.
Human Rights
Watch investigated the availability of potable water and sanitation
in Harare between September 2012 and October 2013. Residents of
Harare and surrounding areas such as Chitungwiza, Norton and Ruwa
require about 1 200megalitres of water a day, but Harare City
Council produces about half of that demand.
A significant
amount of the treated water is also lost to leaks, leaving residents
and industrial businesses with even less.
The city's water
is not safe for consumption, which is something the city is not
open about. The Human Rights Watch report also raises this issue,
saying the number of people who have fallen sick from contaminated
water is startling.
In the past
year, more than 3 000 cases of typhoid have been reported in the
city, but the number is likely higher because many cases go unreported,
Human Rights Watch says.
Unsafe
water
A laboratory
analysis carried out by the Standards Association of Zimbabwe (SAZ),
the results of which were made public last month, confirmed the
presence of harmful coliform bacteria in tap water.
The sample was
taken from Mbare township. The SAZ's recommended total plate count
of water that it considers safe for consumption is 100, the Mbare
sample was more than 300.
Residents in
areas such as Chitungwiza, Glenview and Budiriro have resorted to
fetching water from shallow wells or boreholes sunk with the help
of Unicef in 2008 to help contain the cholera outbreak. Areas such
as Zengeza 2 and St Mary's in Chitungwiza receive water only once
a week.
Areas that are
more affluent, the northern suburbs of Greendale and Highlands,
hardly get water at all.
The report also
found that boreholes drilled during the 2008 outbreak were not maintained
and many are now contaminated; yet out of desperation, people still
draw water from them.
Human Rights
Watch says residents are not receiving any information from government
departments about the safety of the water.
"The water
we get from the tap is not good. Sometimes it smells like fish,
sometimes it smells like raw sewage. But when it comes in we have
no choice and we have to drink it anyway," a resident from
Dzivarasekwa, identified only as Stella, told Human Rights Watch.
Flowing
sewage
Open defecation,
open sewers and flowing sewage are also contaminating wells, the
report indicates.
Although the
Harare City Council recently secured a $144-million loan from China
for rehabilitation and expansion of its water treatment plants,
a city engineer who spoke to the Mail & Guardian on condition
of anonymity revealed that the money was not enough to normalise
the water and sewerage reticulation system in the capital because
of problems, including the poor quality of raw water, ageing equipment
and poor revenue inflows.
He said the
local authority and surrounding towns were also pumping raw sewage
into the city's supply dams, resulting in contamination of water,
making it more difficult to purify.
As a result,
he said, the city was using eight different chemicals to purify
water at a cost of about $3-million a month.
Uphill
battle
A resident of
Budiriro township told Human Rights Watch: "People are suffering
in this area because there is no water and it is a big problem.
Hopelessness is now the order of the day."
Harare acknowledges
that it is facing an enormous task. "Some of the infrastructure
in use is over 60 years old. The economic life of most pumping plants
is 15 years. Beyond this point, the operational efficiencies drop
and breakdowns increase. The city is therefore having to deal with
frequent breakdowns at the treatment works and this reduces the
water output," the city said.
Another problem
is that residents are not always willing to pay their bills.
The government
recently directed all local authorities to write off all debts owed
to them - an act that the opposition party said was an election
gimmick to ensure urban support for Zanu-PF. Now residents are reluctant
to pay, hoping for another round of benevolence.
Uncollected
rubbish
Harare
Residents Trust director Precious Shumba said although chances
of a cholera outbreak had reduced because of a marginal improvement
in the water supply situation, the onset of rains would present
several problems.
"The eastern
and northern suburbs of Harare remain marginalised in terms of water
supplies. These areas rarely get consistent water supplies from
the municipality, meaning they have to find alternatives - boreholes
and private water sellers," said Shumba.
She said three
problems need to be addressed; water quality, refuse collection,
which is inconsistent, and water supply, which is erratic.
Human Rights
Watch said residents dump rubbish, including dead pets and human
faeces, in any open space - even in residential areas and shopping
centres.
Harare and Bulawayo,
the country's two largest cities, are particularly vulnerable to
cholera because they are located on watershed divides. Water draining
out of the city flows into the drinking water sources, all of which
are located downstream of these return flows.
A father of
two from Mufakose township, identified as James in the Human Rights
Watch report, sums it up: "We usually get 20 litres of water
from the borehole. I budget the water so the 20 litres can last
the four of us for several days.
"Even people
who have more family members make 20 litres last. When there is
no water going to the borehole, it is really stressful - waiting
in the lines for hours and all the violence. So we have to make
our 20 litres last."
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