The funding, managed by UNICEF, has been coming from Britain’s Department for International Development.
UNICEF Zimbabwe Representative, Gianni Murzi said the agency is concerned with reports that most Zimbabweans, 30 percent of them in rural areas, do not have access to clean water.
Murzi said the statistics “make a compelling case to increase investment to improve water and sanitation services.”
“Since 2009, DFID has channelled more than $8million through UNICEF to improve the supply of clean water and adequate sanitation facilities for all Zimbabweans.
“I wish to highlight that poor sanitation has a negative bearing on the country’s Millennium Development Goal priorities, including poverty alleviation,” Murzi said.
Murzi’s remarks were made on his behalf in a speech presented by UNICEF Chief of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Section, Kikwe Sebunya, during a Ministry of Water Resources Organised WASH sensitisation meeting held in Bulawayo at a local hotel on Wednesday.
“In Zimbabwe, we have seen how poor access to WASH services combined with a deteriorated health care system resulted in the 2008/09 cholera crisis resulting in more than 98 000 cumulative cases and 4300 deaths,” he added.
The WASH programme was launched recently to support the rehabilitation of existing water and sanitation infrastructure.
The country experienced a severe cholera outbreak in 2008 that left at least over 4000 dead by 2010, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The cholera outbreak was blamed on poor hygiene, lack of access to clean water and shortages of the precious liquid in some cities.
Post published in: News