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Mabvuku water update
Harare Residents' Trust (HRT)
October 25, 2011

Wiilliam Daison, the Chairman of the Mabvuku Residents' Committee, an affiliate of the Harare Residents' Trust (HRT) today challenged residents in both Mabvuku and Tafara to confront service providers especially the City of Harare for their continued failure to address the water situation in the area.

Daison said this after a tour of water points in Mabvuku by the area residents' committee, accompanied by the HRT Coordinator Precious Shumba.

Disgruntled residents told the Chairman that they would want to see him take a leading role in fighting for them rather than simply end with talks on service delivery with city workers who are 'too good for nothing'.

Daison said: "Vanhu vari kuti taneta kubhadhara mari yemvura isingawanikwi. Tinosvika nazvo kupi zvatawe kufa nezvirwere (People are tired of paying for unavailable water supplies. When is the end of this suffering, we are dying of diseases.) So with immediate effect the Mabvuku Residents' Committee is pushing for a real showdown with city authorities. Tawe kuenda mberi tichirwira kodzero dzedu kusvikira zvanaka, tichitanga kuungana paoffice pakatsekera."

Another member of the Committee Mbuya Rachel Chawatama bemoaned the threat posed by the continued water shortages on marriages and welfare of girl children.

"The young ones are enjoying these water shortages as they have more time to have unprotected sex under the cover of darkness," said Chawatama. "As parents we now fear that if this continues we will soon witness an increase in the number of unwanted pregnancies, potentially infected with HIV/Aids."

She said the other major issue that they were hearing was the impact this has on married couples. Women are spending more of their time in water queues, leaving their husbands alone at home. Mbuya Chawatama believes this is a recipe for broken marriages.

The water situation remains serious, forcing residents to fetch water from unprotected wells and boreholes sunk by UNICEF during the typhoid and cholera outbreaks of 2008.

Daison said there was no justification for residents to remain silent in the face of this abuse by the City of Harare.

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