Online Reporter
Tawanda Musarurwa
HARARE is a city of contradictions.
Officially home to 1 849 617 residents, the city’s daytime population swells to over three million as people from nearby towns and rural areas flock in for work.
Despite this daily influx, 60 percent of the central business district (CBD)’s towering buildings lie vacant, with 31 percent in “poor condition”.
Many large corporates have moved to suburban areas, further straining the city’s limited housing infrastructure.
The numbers tell the story of a city in flux.
Formal employment is shrinking, yet the streets are thick with around 800 000 private vehicles, 4 087 registered kombis and a multitude of mishikashika (informal taxis), driving Harare’s carbon monoxide levels to 126 microgrammes per cubic metre.
Despite its unemployment rate rising from 9,2 percent in 2019 to 20,5 percent in 2023, the city remains clogged with people pursuing elusive opportunities; others chasing people’s wallets.
At 35,3 percent, theft is the most common crime in Harare province.
In the first quarter of this year alone, Harare accounted for 3 019 new prisoners — the highest of all provinces, according to Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency data.
How does a city so crowded feel so hollow?
The Harare Master Plan (2025-2045) captures these contradictions in stark detail.
On paper, it is an ambitious 20-year bid to reverse decades of decline.
But Harare’s current state reflects the authorities’ failure to implement earlier plans.
It is a mistake urban planning expert Dr Percy Toriro has long lamented.
“Most of the (ongoing) expansion goes against the intentions of the current Harare Combination Master Plan, which had carefully planned the City of Harare, as well as the linkages with the surrounding satellite towns of Ruwa, Epworth, Chitungwiza, all the way out to Goromonzi and Mazowe,” he said.
The new plan acknowledges this failure but points a finger at adjacent local authorities.
“The proposals of the Harare Combination Master Plan were not fully implemented,” reads part of the Harare Master Plan (2025-2045).
“It is apparent that adjacent local authorities disregarded the 1993 Harare Combination Master Plan and established developments at the urban fringe, exacerbating urban sprawl, as opposed to containment and densification strategies prescribed by the 1993 Harare Combination Master Plan.”
Tellingly, Chitungwiza and Epworth now have the highest population densities of 7 600 and 5 800 people per square kilometre (km²), respectively, far above Harare’s average of 2 584,9 people/km².
But how deep are Harare’s problems and can this new plan really fix them?
Population pressures
With 1,85 million residents, Harare is Zimbabwe’s most populous urban centre, and the broader metropolitan area, including Chitungwiza, Ruwa and Epworth, holds an estimated 2,48 million people.
And the numbers keep rising: by 2050, the population is projected to surpass 3,29 million.
This urban explosion is uneven.
Harare Rural, for example, has experienced exponential growth since 2002, largely due to informal developments at the urban fringe.
The average household now includes five people, reflecting high fertility (2,9 children per woman) and a youthful age structure, with 42,7 percent of residents under 20.
Harare’s water and sanitation systems were built for around 300 000 people and its road network for about 500 000, so it is no surprise its infrastructure is under pressure.
The new master plan makes population density a central focus, but can it catch up in time?
A city running dry
Water shortage is one of Harare’s most immediate and visible crises, with some pipes over 50 years old.
Daily water demand is around 800 megalitres, but current production averages just 295 megalitres, meeting only 37 percent of demand and leaving a 63 percent supply gap.
For many residents, these figures mean daily hardship.
“Sometimes we go for two weeks without tap water,” says Patricia Makombe (not her real name), a mother of three in Mabvuku.
“We wake up at 3am to queue at boreholes. If you are late, you go to work without bathing.”
Her story echoes across Harare, revealing the human cost of infrastructure that has long lagged behind as the city grows.
The new master plan proposes overhauling water and sanitation systems, including upgrades to the Firle and Crowborough sewage works and the long-delayed Kunzvi-Musami water project.
But all this depends on financing, which the city currently lacks.
Much of Harare’s revenue goes towards operational expenses.
Last November, the city approved a US$548 million budget, but only 25 percent (US$137,3 million) was allocated to capital expenditures, including infrastructure.
To fully implement the master plan, Harare may need Government support or foreign investment through public-private partnerships (PPPs), similar to Tanzania’s Kigamboni New City project.
Urban decay
Harare’s urban infrastructure reveals years of neglect.
Nearly a third (30,5 percent) of the road network is rated in “very poor” to “poor” condition.
Potholes and missing road markings are widespread; 41 percent of traffic lights do not work and only 37,6 percent of the city’s 85 000 streetlights are functional.
It is no surprise that road traffic accidents surged by 87,5 percent, from 12 089 in 2021 to 22 670 in 2022, with last year recording the city’s highest total ever, at 22 459.
“The majority of accidents were observed to be occurring in the Harare CBD, along Kirkman Road, Bulawayo Road, Borrowdale Road, Seke Road, Mutare Road, Simon Mazorodze Road, Willowdale Road and in the high-density suburbs of Kuwadzana, Budiriro, Highfield and Glen View,” reads the master plan.
Many of these accidents — also linked to reckless driving — occur during peak-hour gridlocks that are now a daily norm.
Most of Harare’s vehicles are second-hand imports nearing the end of their lifespans, emitting high levels of carbon monoxide.
The Harare Master Plan 2025-2045 proposes tackling congestion through public transit upgrades, non-motorised transport lanes and traffic system synchronisation.
But, without strong enforcement, observers warn, these solutions may be ignored like past efforts.
As infrastructure collapses above ground, Harare’s ecological foundations face even greater danger: disappearing wetlands.
Wetlands: Harare losing its green lungs
Built on the headwaters of the Manyame and Gwebi catchment basin, Harare is a wetland city.
It has 49 officially gazetted wetlands that once served as flood buffers and water filters.
But rapid, and often illegal, urban development has encroached on these areas.
Houses, shops and farms now occupy former marshland.
In the Mukuvisi and Marimba catchments, water quality has worsened due to sedimentation and sewage run-off.
The new blueprint aligns with the Zimbabwe Wetlands Policy, enforcing no-build zones and integrating wetlands into spatial planning.
It proposes that restoring degraded wetlands will strengthen climate resilience and secure water supplies.
However, the plan also admits to “a fundamental tension between conservation and housing demand”, noting that some wetland designations contain errors that fuel disputes.
Environmental degradation extends beyond wetlands.
Harare’s Biodiversity Intactness Index stands at just 0,53, indicating severe ecological stress. Kigali’s wetland rehabilitation project, which is restoring 491 hectares of degraded wetlands, offers a potential model Harare could follow.
An informal city within the city
Few things illustrate Harare’s urban inequality better than its housing landscape.
Official figures show a backlog of 288 885 housing applicants. About 43 percent of residents are lodgers and 67 percent of formal housing is in high-density areas.
Low-density residential zones cover 22,7 percent of Harare’s land (around 19 475 hectares), slightly more than high-density areas at 21,6 percent (18 501 hectares).
Medium-density housing makes up 8,69 percent (7 455 hectares), while flats and clusters account for 3,93 percent (3 368 hectares).
Much of the city’s growth has occurred informally.
Estimates suggest Harare has between 63 and 144 informal settlements, home to approximately 26 000 people.
These settlements are often unplanned, unserviced and illegal.
The master plan proposes mass affordable housing and slum upgrading.
But challenges persist, from corrupt land allocation to an approval process mired in red tape.
The solid waste hazard
Harare generates 798 tonnes of solid waste daily, but only 26 percent is collected and just 2 percent treated at controlled facilities; the rest ends up in open dumps, drainage systems and wetlands.
Uncollected waste clogs drains, worsening flooding — a growing problem in recent years as climate change intensifies.
Disease outbreaks, including cholera, remain recurring threats, particularly in high-density areas like Budiriro and Glen View.
The master plan proposes community-based waste collection and a sanitary landfill, in partnership with Epworth.
But, as with water, chronic underfunding remains a key weakness.
Can the plan work?
The Harare Master Plan 2025-2045 could be the most comprehensive urban blueprint the city has produced in decades.
It identifies root causes of the problems the city is facing, outlines interventions and encourages collaboration with surrounding authorities.
Chitungwiza, for example, plans to source water from Muda Dam; and Epworth aims to co-manage a landfill.
There are plans to build proper housing, maximising vertical space; upgrade sewer systems; and ensure universal access to clean water.
Harare also wants to go green, which involves investing in solar energy, tree planting and improved waste management.
Proposals also include community clinics, schools and parks, especially in underserved areas.
However, success depends on the municipality’s capacity, and that is where the plan may falter.
Municipality’s structural weaknesses
Harare Residents Trust director Mr Precious Shumba highlights several problems.
“The City of Harare lacks capacity in several areas, including financial and human capital, to implement the master plan.
“The successful implementation of the blueprint depends on citizen involvement and their willingness to cooperate with the local authority,” he said.
“As it stands, the council is deliberately antagonising residents and ratepayers in its decision-making.”
Harare’s billing recovery rate is just 48 percent, meaning it collects less than half of what it charges residents, businesses and institutions for services like water, refuse collection and rates.
Non-revenue water is a major issue: Sixty-eight percent of treated water is lost through leakages or unmetered connections, generating no income.
Zoning laws are weakly enforced, adding to governance challenges.
A recent leaked audit by HLB Zimbabwe Chartered Accountants — commissioned by the Auditor-General’s Office — revealed chronic financial mismanagement, missing records, repeated audit disclaimers and unchecked fraud risks.
These systemic failures cast serious doubt on the council’s ability to deliver the new blueprint, which requires strong financial oversight and accountability.
While the Harare Master Plan aspires to global best practices in sustainable urban development, its drafting — part of a Central Government directive to all local authorities — reads like both a confession of past failures and a gamble on redemption.
The document diagnoses root causes and proposes practical interventions, but its success depends on institutional reform, adequate financing and public participation.
And, as the failure of the 1993 Harare Combination Master Plan shows, alignment with surrounding towns and rural district councils will also be crucial.
Online Reporter