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Zimbabwe: Water shortages force schools to close
IRIN News
September 10, 2004

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43126

HARARE - Water supplies to huge swathes of Zimbabwe's capital city, Harare, will be cut to just six hours a day because of severe shortages.

Oriel Boys High school in Harare has been without steady water supplies for several weeks. The school authorities have now decided to start the new school term but hold classes only until 11 am each day.

Pupils milling around the school entrance, who have put up with daily water cuts by the city council, said they were worried about the impact the latest developments would have on the school schedule.

"I hope we will be having normal water supplies by then [next week] because we cannot afford any disruptions in the third term," a pupil told IRIN.

This is the most important term in the Zimbabwean education year, when final examinations are written Some schools, however, failed to reopen this week as a result of water shortages that have left thousands of residents without constant supplies since last year.

A teacher at one school in the capital said on condition of anonymity that the situation was desperate. "Toilets here are closed - we cannot use them because there is no water."

Lake Chivero supplies water to Harare and satellite towns such as Norton, Chitungwiza and Ruwa. Harare has also reportedly reduced supplies of water to these areas in an attempt to reduce consumption. The city's water problems have been blamed on the ageing water reticulation equipment at the water works.

Former Harare mayor Elias Mudzuri told IRIN that residents of the capital city and satellite towns were consuming contaminated water and claimed that information he had obtained revealed that Harare could run dry next month. There was a grave risk to residents' health, he alleged.

"The [water] treatment plants are terribly bad and Lake Chivero is badly polluted. The water currently being consumed has a bad smell because of the untreated raw sewage flowing into the lake and I have since stopped drinking it," he said.

Some residents have called for the intervention of the ministry of health and child welfare as the situation was deteriorating. Another resident said it was high time the health ministry intervened if a disease outbreak was to be avoided.

"Just imagine children being unable to use toilets. We have resorted to digging pits in our gardens, which we use for relieving ourselves. Can you imagine the risk we are putting our children under?"

He said residents in his neighbourhood were contemplating holding a peaceful demonstration to show their frustrations with the way the city council was conducting its business.

Professor Chris Magadza of the University of Zimbabwe this week warned of the danger of microcystin levels rising well above World Health Organisation recommended limits in Lake Chivero. Microcystins cause cancers, intestinal disorders and damage human male testicular chromosomes, he explained.

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