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Two weeks won't solve Harare water crisis
Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA)
October 16, 2012

On Friday 12 October 2012 the Minister of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development Dr. I. Chombo announced on state radio that he had written to Harare City Council and has issued a two week ultimatum for the local authority to deal with the current water crisis. This is the first action that has been taken by government in response to the crisis of water facing Harare save for small budgetary allocations for water pipes by the Minister of Finance.

The Association is pleased that finally government is seeing sense in the argument that we have consistently put across that there is need for its urgent intervention if the crisis is to be solved. However, the latest ultimatum issued by the Minister must be put in its proper context. This ultimatum is very much hypocritical in nature considering that this Minister is the same "Big Men" who pushed for water services to be taken over by ZINWA in 2007 which then saw the rampant destruction of water infrastructure due to the incapacitation of ZINWA to deliver and maintain water infrastructure. Today, the City has come out in public that the problem is not embedded so much on water sources, but is largely due to the dilapidated infrastructure which was originally meant to cater for 300 000 people but now is servicing more than 2 million people. To strengthen this point, it is on good ground that Bulawayo resisted the ZINWA take over and today their only problem is that the dams that supply water have run dry but the infrastructure is fairly well.

In 2004 after the expulsion of the Mudzuri led council, the Minister went on to appoint a Commission which was chaired by Sekesayi Makwavarara without the peoples consent. This commission stayed in office for more than 6 months which meant that it was an illegal commission and it went on to preside over deteriorating water infrastructure which then led to a Cholera outbreak. CHRA approached the high court over the illegal Commission and it won a court order declaring it illegal. In fact the Commission was illegally appointed for a record 6 times. Cases of mis-management of funds were rampant during their period in council but nothing was done to curb the looting. In any case the issue of the Minister's alleged corrupt dealings of land transpired on the eve of the 2008 elections during the tenure of the Makwavarara Commission

We have all reason therefore to strongly believe that the current council has managed to do things that can be written on paper especially regards the water issue. When the Masunda led council was sworn in, Harare was failing to supply water to many urban areas and Harare was producing not more than 300 mega litres of water a day and there were no refuse trucks to service Harare's pilling dumpsites and domestic refuse but to date at least 30 trucks are servicing the City. Harare is producing an average of 540-600 mega-litres of water a day but according to the Town clerk's office, of the aforesaid amount 60% of that is being lost through leakages. This badly exposes how Minister Chombo's decision to fire elected councilors and advocate for the takeover of water supply in favour of ZINWA is now haunting City.

The Association does believe that the Masunda led Council still has to do more to address the problems of water in Harare. This council cannot be absolved from the current water crisis but there is need for Minister Chombo to acknowledge that he is part of the problem and must not politic about people's lives. In the circumstances a multi Ministerial committee involving the Minister of Water and Local Government and Finance must sit down with the City of Harare and come up with a viable Water crisis response strategy.

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