Growth points, small towns show the way

by a cholera outbreak that finally spread nationwide.
Typhoid and cholera thrive in areas where there is poor sanitation and intermittent supplies of clean water to residents.

These factors abound in the capital with certain sections going for months without running water while raw effluent flows onto the streets due to non-functional sewerage works and burst pipes.
Erratic load-shedding by the electricity authority further compounds the water supplies situation.

This condition, however, gets even worse during the high-energy demand winter season.
However, the severity of water shortages remain largely felt in the large cities of Harare and Bulawayo even though the second largest city is yet to record a water-borne disease epidemic.

These facts paint a good picture of Zinwa’s capability in water management.
The Authority is responsible for providing treated bulky water supplies to growth points and some small towns, mines and health centres across the country.
Zinwa strives to provide uninterrupted water supplies consistently to these centres even in the face of liquidity challenges in the economy.

Its commitment stretches to liquid waste disposal as it runs some of the sewer reticulation systems in those places.
The water authority is trying its level best to keep the water and sewer reticulation systems in these areas functional.
It remains very aware of the fact that any mistakes in that responsibility costs lives and depletes the country’s human resource base.

Zinwa, to that end, has continued to set aside resources to repair and maintain the main water infrastructures in these centres.
This has seen the laying of new pipes to replace the ageing lines that have outlived their economic lives and immediate repairs to any leaking or burst pipes.
Zinwa remains alive to the dangers of raw effluent flowing into the rivers and dams from collapsing treatment plants across the country.

To that end it is engaging the relevant authorities and stakeholders like local authorities, Government and the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) to find lasting solutions to the dangers to our water sources.
The current threat to water bodies can only be avoided by a massive capital injection in liquid waste and sewerage management by local authorities and central government.

The situation is dire and cannot be postponed any further for the sake of human life.
Zinwa welcomes Treasury’s efforts by setting aside significant funding to help local authorities repair and upgrade their water and sewer reticulation systems in the 2012 National Budget.

This effort, however, needs to be complemented by deliberate capital expenditure by local authorities in the same field.
Zimbabwe desperately needs a co-ordinated approach to dealing with water pollution.
It is imperative that all water stakeholders regularly meet and hold peer review and discuss new developments in water and waste management.

While all has been said and done, Zinwa’s water management policies and style in growth points, mines and small towns remain the most ideal to be replicated in big cities.
Facts on the ground point to that direction or alternatively there should be greater interaction between the local authorities and the water authorities in management of water

and sewer reticulation.