CHITUNGWIZA town south of Harare is slowly resembling into a rural community as residents struggle to access basic needs like potable water, electricity, efficient refuse collection and maintenance of roads.
by PAIDAMOYO MUZULU
The enduring picture one gets in the dusty town is of women and girls balancing water containers on their heads each morning and at dusk trekking to the nearest Unicef drilled boreholes, a running stream or a deep well sunk at some house for the precious liquid.
This has been a way life in the town for months now as the council finds it hard to consistently supply water to its burgeoning population.
The situation has been so dire, the women have had to change their lifestyles to suit the new challenges.
Kumbirai Kahiya Chikowero, a women and girls’ rights activist, said the water crisis in Chitungwiza was hitting women and girls the hardest.
“Women and girls have more needs for water than men, especially when they are menstruating. It’s a fact that they menstruate on different days throughout the month, hence they need clean water for personal hygiene,” Chikowero said.
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“The continued water crisis endangers the lives of women and girls and this also affects general domestic health as people need water for sanitation.”
Jane Mhonda from Zengeza spoke of how her life has changed due to the inconsistent water supply. She now has to rise early and sleep late.
“I have changed my sleeping pattern as I wake up as early as 4:30am to start the search of water for domestic use. I wake up early so that I beat the long queue that forms after 6am,” Mhonda said.
Mhonda’s source of water is usually a house within the same street, but sometimes she has to fetch it at a borehole sunk by Unicef.
“I usually get water from a deep well on this street, but if the water levels get low then the owners direct us to the borehole,” she said.
Mhonda who has two children also narrated how she had to train her kids on water conservation and the necessity of not frequently visiting the toilet.
“They now understand they have to bath while standing in a plastic tub so that we use the same water to flush the toilet,” she said.
The water crisis has also changed the social lives of many families in the town.
Sarudzai Zimbudzi a Form 5 student says that she no longer enjoys her evenings with her family.
“After school I have to fetch water, then study. This routine allows me time to prepare for school in the morning,” Zimbudzi said.
“Sometimes it takes one and half hours before I get an opportunity to fill up four 20-litre containers and unlike my brothers, I miss my favourite television shows.”
Some parents like Eve Mhlanga are worried that the trips to the borehole provide a convenient opportunity for some girls to see their boyfriends under the pretext of fetching water.
“At times I am shocked by the daring young girls and boys who use the opportunity to see each other and are not ashamed to show affection at the water point,” Mhlanga said.
To some, the recurring water shortages bring the haunting thoughts of thousands who succumbed to cholera in 2008 as the town became the epicentre of the national epidemic.
The pandemic was only brought to halt by the intervention of international agencies such as World Health Organisation and Unicef and some western embassies that provided water treatment chemicals and medicines for those afflicted by the water-borne disease.
Chitungwiza Residents Trust (Chitrest) is concerned that if the current situation remains, another health crisis could be on the horizon.
“The council must provide mobile water tanks (bowsers) so as to alleviate the water shortages and reduce the risk of diarrheal diseases. Save for just talking, there is no tangible action with regards to addressing this health time-bomb,” Chitrest said.
Thirty-six years after independence, Chitungwiza does not have its own water sources and relies on the City of Harare. Chitrest argues this is an untenable situation, considering that Harare is struggling to efficiently and consistently supply water to its own residents.
Chitrest said the council has a draft plan for the construction of its own water supply — Muda dam — but like Kunzvi dam for Harare, the project has remained a mirage in terms of practical steps towards its construction.
“Chitrest urges both the government and the municipality to take water provision seriously as it has a direct bearing on the quality of life and health of close to a million residents of the fast-growing Chitungwiza population,” it said.
Section 77 of Zimbabwe’s constitution reads: “Every person has the right to (a) safe, clean and potable water; and sufficient food; and the State must take reasonable legislative and other measures, within the limits of the resources available to it, to achieve the progressive realisation of this right.”
But analysts said for now, this right remains a mirage for resident of Chitungwiza as women and girls continue to bear the brunt of the water crisis.
