Residents in Harare capital, Zimbabwe on May 13, 2019.
Harare, Zimbabwe (CNN)A recent drought in Zimbabwe has left more than two million people unable to access clean water, according to officials.
In recent years, Harare municipality has been battling against low water quality due to a critical shortage of purifying chemicals, which cost in excess of USD$3 million per month, water engineers said.
Harare Acting Water Director Mabhena Moyo Tuesday blamed the current economic crisis for hampering water service delivery.
“We are using more chemicals and we have not been able to procure enough safe chemicals as a result, we are targeting to provide water to our residents with a minimum of once a week’ supply of the precious liquid,” he said.
Residents in Harare told CNN they have been experiencing water shortages since January, but the situation has worsened as many homes have gone without water for weeks as the crisis lingers.
“It was bad when they started rationing it, we could store water but it is dire now, because we may have no water for days and there is nothing to store,” Nyasha Chingo, who lives in Kuwadzana, a township near the Harare business district told CNN.
“We will continue with the water rationing exercise for a certain period into the foreseeable future because of the drought and chemicals,” Moyo told reporters.
The Community Water Alliance of Zimbabwe, a campaign group that has been monitoring cases, says the worst affected areas are Chitungwiza, Epworth, Ruwa and Norton Town Councils, where residents have not had water for more than three months.
The water crisis has also sparked fears of cholera outbreak in areas where residents have gone without water for as long as three months, the NGO said.
“We are looking at hygiene standards, service delivery and ablution system which requires water. Citizens have been greatly affected and the cholera hotspots are what we fear the most,” Hardlife Mudzingwa of the Community Water Alliance told CNN.
Zimbabwe has done nothing to solve its power, health, road, water, food, etc. problems for the last 39 years and now the chickens are coming home to roost!
Some idiots would not even talk of these problems because the viewed doing so as being “unpatriotic”! They swept the problems under the carpet and pretended everything was fine. Most of these idiots are not in Zimbabwe themselves because even a village idiot would know there was nothing to be proud of living on US$ 30 per month or less, no clean water, 19 hours a day every day power cuts, no health care, etc., etc.
Worse of all these economic problems are all man-made problems, they are the product of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption. Sweeping them under the carpet has only allowed the misrule to get worse and those most vociferous about the problems being swept under the carpet are the ones benefiting from the mismanagement and corruption and do not want free, fair and credible elections because they will be booted out of power.
When patriotism is being peddled to justify misrule and bad governance it is just another form of deceit and only idiots fall for it. The nation stands to gain nothing from having millions suffering and dying in dumb anguish whilst the few ruling elite live in palatial mansions and unparalleled luxury. Where is the patriotism in that!