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Local governance on the nose dive
Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA)
September 21, 2007

This week experienced a further collapse in the local governance situation in Harare and the country. The water and sewer situation continues to deteriorate as ZINWA fails to provide competent sewer and water administration. CHRA received an up sage of reports on burst sewers that have not been attended to for ages and a new wave of disease outbreaks arising form these sewer bursts. The water situation has also reached critical levels as residents in most parts of Harare for days without water. In Mabvuku and Tafara the situation is even desperate as residents are collecting water in streams a situation that has heavily compromised the health of residents.

In Glen View and Budiriro residents are also reeling under heavy water cuts. The power situation has not been the better. The water situation is worse in Bulawayo where residents go for weeks without running water. ZINWA has maintained that it needs heavy capital input from government in order to undertake maintenance work and improve its services.

The power situation has not been the better at all. The power authority actually predicts the situation will not improve until at least 2010. Zimbabwe used to receive power supplies from South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique and the Democratic republic of Congo. Only Mozambique continues to supply a meager amount of power as others have opted out due non payment from Zimbabwe. The power authority maintains that it also needs heavy foreign currency input to provide effective services. Zimbabwe produces and imports a combined capacity which is slightly above half the expected capacity. This means that on a daily basis half of Zimbabweans have to without power.

The refuse situation has also worsened. Informal and formal dumping sites continue to be flooded with uncollected waste as the city of Harare claims that it has no fuel to carry out effective waste management services. In Mbare this has led to disease outbreaks like Cholera and Dysentery. The healthy delivery system is receiving and processing hundreds of cases related to Cholera and Dysentery every month.

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