Colin Nyangani
What is ironic is that it can’t be a coincidence???
After a reported incident on the leakage on Phillipi Circle and Renders road two months ago, and the Sunningdalearcadia Facebook post made on the non responsiveness of City of Harare dated 19/02/2021.
We saw Johnson, Peterson avenue following suit, and the problem has multiplied to other streets (Herbert Hick and Renders road) resulting in most the low lying households flooding with water from burst water pipes.
Children with no close parental supervision found the water perfect for swimming, whilst mother’s found the water useful for the toilets and washing and those with cars found the water useful for car washing.
In our normalcy really got disturbed that water infrastructure versus population growth in Harare City Council provides a clear example of the neglect of infrastructure maintenance, repairs and upgrade.
We also observed from that in most parts of Harare there are burst water pipes which are unattended for whatever reason yet to be substantiated.
The implication of neglecting infrastructure maintenance, repairs and upgrade is that both existing and new developing suburbs would face severe water shortages.
It is common knowledge that Zimbabwe is party to various international legal instruments that recognise the right to water as essential to the realisation of all human rights including the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) and International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It is disheartening that our so called Representatives in Local authorities and Central Government are failing to domesticate these International treaties and Sustainable Development Goals.
In these difficult times where the City of Harare billing system is in shambles our voice of the marginalized association makes the ordinary residents understand the terms Unaccounted For Water(UFW) or Non Revenue Water (NRW) which refers to water losses through leakage, theft, illegal connections, public use, faulty meters, meter reading errors and other unaccountable losses once the water leaves the treatment plant which may be passed on to the Resident clandestinely without any any specific financial formulas and validation as the nine treatment chemicals always has it’s on net effect on the charges and Levies made by resolution.
The high Non Revenue Water shows that Harare City Council lacks an efficient water management system.
In my survey as a Colin Nyangani Community Development Consultant; my findings reveal that 73.6 per cent of the residents who took part in the questionnaire survey disagreed with the statement that council’s response to faults reports such as burst water and sewer pipes is swift, 14.1 per cent were neutral and 12.4 per cent agreed.
This shows that Harare City Council does not respond quickly to cases which require urgent attention.
This points to weak governance of water infrastructure and resources.
Efforts were made from morning by the Executive member servants of Sunningdale 1 Residents Association (S1RA) (Mr Quincy Petersen and Mr Colin Nyangani) and the S Member of Parliament- Sunningdale (Honourable Winnie Kankuni)to get responses and waiver of action from the Sunningdale District Officer Mrs Chikomo proved fruitless until we got hold of Ms Dorothy Mavolwane (Public Relations Officer) and the Water Superintendent from the department of Water Works.
The leakages were stopped and our main worries are now on the standard repair times and restoration of water supplies to the marginalized residents.
It is unfortunate that Sunningdale (Ward 10) has no Councillor and the Member of Parliament Honourable Winnie Kankuni (MDC)is doubling her roles covering for the recalled Hammy Madzingira who is facing Corruption charges.
Authored by: Colin S. Nyangani (SirColin)
Community Development Consultant
@ Cde Akafanana Newe™
#WaterIsLife
#DemandingRestorationOfWaterSupplies
#SupportSunningdale
