SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe
A leading human rights activist says there is need for all arms of government to acknowledge and work together towards finding a lasting solution to Harare’s water problems.
Dewa Mavhinga is a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, who published the report “Troubled Water: Burst Pipes, Contaminated Wells, and Open Defecation in Zimbabwe’s Capital,” He told SW Radio Africa that the problem so far has been the reluctance by relevant authorities to “recognise that there is a problem, and act decisively to address it”.
Speaking on Thursday’s Big Picture programme, Mavhinga said the latest outbreak of diarrhoea in Harare should be read within the larger context of the general collapse of the public service infrastructure within the country.
“Water troubles are just the tip of the iceberg and just a symptom of the wider, cross-sectoral challenges countrywide, hence the need for all ministries to work together to address this.
“What is more worrying for us is the denial from public officials and this denial also extends to the failure by these officials at all levels of government to provide information about the degree of contamination of the city’s borehole water.
“Our research found that water from a third of the boreholes located within Harare is contaminated with raw sewage. And yet the information out there is that borehole water is safe to drink. This exposes residents to all typhoid, cholera, diarrhoea, etc. If people know the truth, then they can begin to take measures to protect themselves,” Mavhinga said.
Mavhinga urged the donor community, who have been instrumental in sinking boreholes in many of Harare’s residential areas, to come up with comprehensive measures to ensure that “when boreholes are sunk, they also regularly monitor contamination levels, and on the maintenance”.
Mavhinga said Human Rights Watch was in the process of lobbying the Zimbabwe government regarding the finding of the reports and the country’s human rights obligations.
“But we have been surprised by the hostility to the report findings from certain sections of the donor community have sought to deny that there is open defecation which is exacerbating the water contamination. This is because they want to believe that their interventions are sufficient when in fact on the ground, the situation is dire as the testimonies we gathered indicate,” Mavhinga added.
You can listen to the whole interview with Mavhinga on Thursday night’s Big Picture programme, Listen here.