This call comes from a man who is in the defacto cabinet which disregarded the legislature and the very same stakeholders whose inclusion he is now calling for. The state media has for the past months tried to pacify local government through half-hearted and stage managed castigation of ZINWA. This was being done to simply lobby for a buy-in into ZINWA by the local authorities. This will be tantamount to endorsing the mess which has claimed so many lives, thus being accomplices to this carnage.
The call comes when tertiary institutions of The University of Zimbabwe’s caliber and centrality in national human resource development can not open because of the water crisis and health hazard unfolding in the city. The call comes at an unfortunate time when 14 lives have been lost to cholera in Chitungwiza and when scores of people are suffering form diarrhoea, dysentery and other related diseases. Some of the city’s areas like Mabvuku and Tafara have gone for more than a year without water. Other affected areas include Hatfield, Msasa Park, Mandara, Glen Lorne and Chisipite.
ZINWA forcefully took over water and sewer management from the City of Harare in 2007 without consultation with residents thus usurping the council’s borrowing powers and dealing a heavy blow to its revenue base reducing it by 40%. Ever since it took over, ZINWA has failed to provide clean and adequate water but continued to defraud residents through its bill estimates. This has resulted in residents failing to realize value for their money since ZINWA does not have the financial and technical expertise, let alone the residents` blessing to run the city’s water and sewer system.
The Combined Harare Association reiterates its position that water and sewer management, as all other local government processes, is and should, remain the responsibility of the local authority and the residents who are the rightful custodians of the city and all its asserts. The ZINWA takeover was unwarranted, unprocedural and has resulted in the untold suffering and deaths of residents and continues to pose a threat to their health. The Deputy Minister’s call serves as an admission of failure and guilt and further buttresses the point that ZINWA should return the water and sewer management to the City of Harare who will in turn engage ZINWA and other stakeholders as and when deemed necessary.