Zimbabwe's water crisis is a ticking time bomb.
In urban areas residents are now desperate for potable water and the authorities' failure to prioritise safe water provision is alarming.
Reports last week that the water crisis is now affecting even the country’s rural folk are disturbing. And, as happens this time every year for decades, Bulawayo decommissions some dams; last week it decommissioned the Upper Ncema dam, as it soon will several others.
This crippling crisis stems from decades of neglect, mismanagement and startling indifference by the government.
The struggle for water in Bulawayo is long-standing, with the Matabeleland-Zambezi Water Project, conceived over 90 years ago, still in its infancy with the Gwayi-Shangani dam barely 40% done. This project could have been a game-changer, but it's been consistently overlooked.
Every year for several decades now, residents in urban areas are forced to queue for hours, sometimes days, for a precious litre of water. Families resort to contaminated sources, risking waterborne illnesses. Businesses and hospitals struggle to operate, compromising economic and healthcare stability.
Why does the government allow the country to live with the same predictable problem every year for decades without doing anything tangible about it?
The issue of water provision is the same with the endless power crisis which citizens have had to endure for decades. Authorities know for sure that come October every year, the country’s hydropower source collapses because of water shortage, but there’s nothing to demonstrate effort to provide alternative solution.
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The country’s highest decision-making body, the Cabinet, which is chaired by the president, sits every Tuesday throughout the year, but for decades, they wait for the same power problem and water crisis to come at the end of every year.
Needless to say, some among them benefit from the attendant piecemeal interventions.
Zimbabwe's water collection and reservation systems are woefully inadequate. Rainwater flows uncontested into the ocean, unutilised and unreserved. Existing dams, once lifelines, are choked by siltation caused by government-sanctioned riverbed mining by Chinese companies. These companies receive preferential treatment while they ravage Zimbabwe's waterways.
We urge the government to urgently invest in rehabilitation and expansion of water infrastructure and effective dam management. The siltation that is taking place in rivers and dams across the country must be stopped forthwith to ensure dam capacity.
