Urban & Rural

WORLD WATER DAY: Water Everywhere but Not a Drop to Drink

Inter Press Service - Ignatius Banda

BULAWAYO, Mar 22, 2010 (IPS) - When there are water cuts in Bulawayo, the plants in 59-year-old Ntombizodwa Makati’s vegetable garden are still watered - but she and her family go thirsty.

Small scale farmers in Bulawayo are able to use recycled waste water for their crops as lack of adequate rainfall affects the region, thanks to the local city council’s programme. But there are no programmes in place to provide drinking water for households in the area. Makati is one of many urban residents living in poor suburbs, in a city of two million people, who face constant and prolonged water shortages.

World Water Day is on Mar. 22, which United Nations-Water has given the theme of water quality "Clean Water for a Healthy World". But water quality still remains an issue in Bulawayo. The city has long cited lack of resources as the stumbling block toward providing water for domestic use.

Makati complains that while she is able to water her vegetable garden at her home in Mabutweni, a high-density suburb, using waste water provided by the city council, there still remain no alternative water sources for domestic use.

Along with her fellow residents, Makati has been forced to resort to unsafe open water sources for domestic use when the taps run dry – something that happens on a regular basis.

"It is increasingly frustrating having to go without water and without getting any warning from the municipality," Makati said.

"We are extremely (lucky) when the rain falls because then we can harvest the rain water which we find clean and can use in our kitchens," she said.

However, the poor rains that have hit the drought-prone parts of Zimbabwe’s southern region means there is little Makati can fall back on as an alternative water source.

What has exacerbated the crisis for Makati and many others is that she still has to boil the unsafe drinking water, but electricity power cuts have virtually made this impossible. The inability to purify the water places many at risk of contracting cholera. Memories of the 2008 cholera outbreak still remain fresh on the minds of locals.

The Bulawayo City Council has for years promoted the use of what it calls "reclaimed water" where waste water from sewer treatment plants is used for farming and urban agriculture projects. But such initiatives are yet to extend to domestic water use.

This, according to city officials, is largely because a lack of funds has stalled projects such as the drawing of water from the Zambezi River.

"We are still facing financial problems that have made harnessing ground water and improving water quality and also water quantity difficult," says council spokesperson Nesisa Mpofu.

Water quality remains an issue in Bulawayo with residents complaining that water from household taps sometimes looks like river water, with a murky brown appearance that clearly indicates it has not been chemically treated.

Bulawayo mayor Thaba Moyo acknowledged the criticism of the water quality, especially to poor suburbs where the majority of the city’s residents, like Makati, reside. "We really have to strive to give our residents clean water," Moyo told a recent council meeting.

The United Nations Children’s Fund has since responded by giving the city water treatment chemicals as part of efforts to improve water quality.

At the height of the 2008 cholera outbreak, which the World Health Organization says claimed over 6,000 lives, the Bulawayo City Council provided water treatment tablets to households. But this programme stopped after donor agencies saw the decline of cholera cases, Mpofu said.

Water Resources and Infrastructure Development Minister Sam Sipepa Nkomo has lamented that the city’s water problems will take long to be solved, citing a poor budget vote for his ministry. The ministry was allocated a little over 100 million dollars for the 2009/2010 budget, but Nkomo says the building of the Zambezi water pipeline will need more than 1.2 billion dollars.

The politics of water have stalked the council for years, with city officials citing lack of commitment by the then government of President Robert Mugabe.

With the continued poor rains, which experts say have been worsened by the effects of climate change, the aims of World Water Day seem far off from being realised, water rights activist Susan Mbambo said.

"There have not been any tangible efforts to harness alternative water sources for domestic use, but farmers have been receiving help because the water they use is cheap to recycle but still cannot be used for domestic use," said Mbambo who works closely with the Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association.

"The city council cites lack of adequate budgetary support from central government to fix water problems and this has meant residents turn to sources like burst water pipes to scoop water for home use," Mbambo said.

Early this year, the city council cited financial setbacks as the reason for failing to service about 77 boreholes at Nyamayendlovu, a local township.

Source: IPS 2010b