Mabvuku/Tafara get water after 10 years of dry taps
By Helen Kadirire
After spending more than 10 years without receiving municipal water, residents of Mabvuku and Tafara heaved a sigh of relief last weekend when the Harare City Council (HCC) resumed pumping the resource to their homes.
The two high density suburbs had, for more than a decade, been hard hit by a water crisis, prompting council and aid agencies to drill boreholes in strategic areas for use by the residents.
Following the recent completion of a pipe replacement exercise, HCC has now resumed pumping water to both suburbs.
“We had been making efforts over the last few months to deliver water to Mabvuku and Tafara. Last weekend, people started receiving water and we hope that supply will improve as pipe replacement continues,” said council spokesperson Michael Chideme.
Several other suburbs have had perennial water challenges, among them Hatcliffe, Highlands, Msasa Park, Borrowdale, Hopley, Southley Park, Caledonia, Glen Lorne, Budiriro and parts of Highfield and Glen View.
Chideme told the Daily News yesterday that the affected areas will start receiving water once council has resolved the prevailing challenges impeding them from getting water supplies.
Community Water Alliance (CWA) chairperson Hildarberta Rwambiwa has welcomed the resumption of water supplies to Mabvuku-Tafara, saying the development indicates that HCC was effectively using funds sourced from the Africa Development Bank under Zimfund Phase 2.
She said access to potable water was a constitutional right which all Zimbabweans were entitled to enjoy.
“Progressive realisation of the human right to water entails that government and its agencies must improve sufficiency, availability, accessibility and quality of potable water,” she said.
“The inadequacy of resources should not be an excuse that should be used to place implementation of the right to water on hold”.
The CWA chairperson implored council to expedite the pipe replacement programme to improve distribution to the rest of Harare.
She also urged residents to pay for services in order to guarantee the sustainable provision of water in their areas.
“As we head towards 30 July 2018 elections, our votes should reflect our demand for availability, accessibility and quality of potable water. We should vote for issues and water is a very important issue within local authorities in Zimbabwe,” Rwambiwa said.
While rehabilitation is being done on the city’s distribution network and water treatment plants, rationing has not been ruled out with officials arguing that the growing population is bearing heavily on water supply. Daily News.
