HARARE The Zimbabwe government is working on new regulations that will make it difficult for aid agencies to drill boreholes in water-scarce areas, a move likely to worsen the countrys water crisis and feed a recurring cholera problem.Water Resources Minister Samuel Sipepa Nkomo said his ministry was considering tightening regulations governing the drilling of boreholes to control the activities of non-governmental organisations that have been assisting communities with clean water.
The current haphazard situation where NGOs simply agree with a community and they go and drill a borehole must stop. That does not make us manage the ground water we have in the country and we want to be able to manage this ground water, Nkomo said in the latest issue of a weekly newsletter published by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
The move would affect NGOs that have been drilling boreholes in rural and urban areas hardest hit by Zimbabwes perennial water shortages.
The operations of such NGOs have brought welcome relief to millions of Zimbabweans who have had no access to clean drinking water due to the inability of government to invest in new infrastructure.
Saying his department should be the ultimate authority over Zimbabwes water issues, Nkomo announced that his ministry had finalised a document on amendments to the Water Act that would soon be taken to the Cabinet committee on legislation.
The minister, however, conceded that it would be difficult for Zimbabwe to attain the goal of providing water to all its citizens without the assistance of the aid agencies and NGOs.
Rebuilding the dilapidated water infrastructure would require replacing all pipes in the cities and towns, with Harare alone requiring in excess of US$250 million to restore full water supplies.
Work on the capitals water infrastructure was stopped a few months ago after the US$17 million allocated to the local authority ran out.
He said cabinet was currently considering a proposal to enlist private sector assistance in rolling out a stalled project to pipe water from the Zambezi River to Matabeleland region in the west of the country.
The Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project, a long held plan to tap water from the Zambezi River through the construction of a 450km pipeline to arid Matabeleland was mooted way back in 1912.
The total cost of the pipeline has sky-rocketed and the project is now estimated to cost about US$600 million.
However, the crisis-ridden government has been unable to implement the scheme, drawing the ire of Bulawayo residents and other pressure groups from the region.
A resurgent cholera outbreak has so far claimed at least five lives since October amid fears that the disease would spread to more people as the current rain season progresses.
Cholera claimed more than 1 400 lives last year and affected nearly 100 000 people before it was contained in July this year.
Post published in: News