Harare needs new water schemes

Fortious Nhambura Features Correspondent
Harare is currently facing acute water shortages. Under its present pumping capacity, the city’s water supplies are only able to satisfactorily reach 40 percent of the city’s population.
Over the years water demand has outstripped supply.
Growing population and urban expansion has seen the current water sources failing to cope, hence the need for new water sources.
Scholars and researchers have attributed the water quantity and quality problems faced by Harare to rapid population growth, inadequate maintenance of the water and waste water infrastructure treatment, use of expensive technologies, a poor institutional framework, and rampant illegal urban agricultural practices which result in washing off and leaching of nutrients and siltation of lakes.

Other observers have attributed this to poor management practices.
Analysts say the city should be moving to create new and cleaner water sources if it is to reduce its purification bill and the overall cost of water production.
Water purification gobbles up to US$3 million monthly, an amount council says is unsustainable and has forced Harare to shelve other developmental projects.
There is need to urgently construct new water sources as the city supply dams are heavily polluted.

Acting Harare Mayor Mr Thomas Muzuva said despite efforts to improve water availability, there were challenges hence the need for immediate action to provide new clean sources.

“Our water sources are heavily polluted, leading to a huge treatment bill. The solution lies in the construction of additional water sources. Three dams have been earmarked for the expansion. These are Muda, Musami and Kunzvi,” he said. Town planning expert Dr Sasha Jogi said Harare water infrastructure was way behind the development and if the city management wanted to achieve their aims of turning Harare into a world class city there was need to give water provision priority.

“We are currently using 450 megalitres of water against a demand of 1200mg. That means we simply do not have enough water. The city needs enough water to fuel its development.

“If the city authorities are serious with plans to make Harare a world class city by 2025, then they have to make sure that they put in place parameters of global cities, and water is one.

“Water is not only a commodity but a resource because it brings life to our cities. Harare has to manage its water and as things stand, it is difficult,” he said.
Dr Jogi said it was imperative that new sources be constructed to ensure that there is increased water output for the city. We have a goal to be a global city and we have to catch up. We have Kunzvi that has a capacity for 250mg a day, so that 250mg plus current 450mg and that is not enough.

“Remember the city is growing so we have to continue building these dams to provide water. Musami has to come in quick with a capacity of 450mg,” Dr Jogi said. He said additional water sources would not only increase availability of water but also its quality as the city water sources were heavily polluted and did not give confidence to residents to use it.

“The only way we can deal with pollution is to minimise the amount of waste that is going to Chivero but as things stand we have to look for alternative water sources.”

The water has been blamed for the increase in cancer cases in the city.
But it seems the city has to contend with the pollution and the fear of diseases for sometime as Harare is still stuck with the current polluted water sources.
Harare was established in the kopje area by mistake as the settlers had earmarked it for Mt Hampden.

And by settling at the kopje, they settled in the catchment area so that any dirty generated in Harare ends up in Lake Chivero, the main source of the city’s water.
“So we must ask ourselves; do you have other catchments for the city and the answer is yes. There is Shavanhowe catchment on which the Kunzvi and Musami dams are designed.

“We also have the Mupfure catchment where the Muda dam is being designed to give water to Chitungwiza, and Mazowe catchment where we can design another dam.  “The good thing about these catchments is that we have a potential to keep them clean. So when we look at the expansion of Harare we have to make a conscious decision to say let’s grow the city in this direction,” Dr Jogi said.

Historically, Harare has always responded to increased demand for water by augmenting the supplies.
Over the years, Harare has developed five dams namely; Cleveland (1910), Seke (1929), Harava (1972), Chivero (1952) and Manyame (1976).

Cleveland Dam has since been decommissioned as a source of potable water supply to Harare. Analysts say if Harare is dreaming of becoming a world class city it needs to increase its water supply. Owing to increasing pollution, there is continued deterioration in the quality of water in Lake Chivero and Manyame.

“With the amount of water we have now, we can never dream of becoming a global city. Water does a lot of things. It waters your plants, flowers and sometimes washes your streets.

“We cannot simply do that because the water is scarce. A world class city is a whole new way of doing business. The way the Rhodesian left us we cannot do them anymore, it’s gone,” said Mr Shingai Kawadza, an urban analyst.

Dr Jogi concurred saying only water could breathe life into the city.
“With the amount of water we have we may never become a global city. Water does a lot of things; it waters your plants, flowers, cleans us every morning and sometimes it is used to wash streets. We cannot do that because the water is scarce.

“It unfortunate we are always playing catch up to ballooning water needs of the city and its satellites towns. We are saying development of houses with no corresponding developments in water infrastructure is short-sighted. Development should happen simultaneously,” Dr Jogi said. Studies carried out by various consultants commissioned by the City of Harare had forecast water demand to outstrip supplies by 2002 and the Kunzvi Water Supply Project was supposed to be commissioned that year.

The plans remain on the drawing board. Equally so, the proposed Musami Water Supply Scheme was supposed to be commissioned in 2008 but has been stalled due to funding challenges.

In the meantime, the population of Harare has continued to surge, growing from about 200 000 in 1980 to over two million now because of the sprouting new suburbs and settlements within greater Harare. Town planners and developmental analysts say the city must involve government, private sector, nongovernmental organisations and individuals in management. Global cities are in themselves inclusive.

The SADC Water Policy of 2005 recognises water as the engine of regional economic and social development, underpinning the key objectives of poverty reduction, food security and industrial development. Even the country’s economic blueprint, ZimAsset places access to water, sanitation and waste water disposal in towns and cities at the centre in the development of the urban settlements. The economic blueprint places high on agenda the need to complete water supply projects and to improve Harare’s water supply and to have waste water treatment plants rehabilitated.

As such in implementing the water demand management instruments, Harare cannot totally depart from its proposal for the Kunzwi and Musami water schemes.
Construction of new dams also offers a range of opportunity for city. It gives the city a chance to also construct smaller hydro power plants which can then be used in water treatment and pumping and energy needs of local areas. Zimbabwe desperately needs more sources of energy. These schemes will not be limited to the supply of water to Harare alone but will to a large extent stimulate agricultural growth along the pipeline corridor from the dam site to Harare.

Agriculture will benefit from dams as the new water sources would promote irrigation. This will result in improved food security for Harare and its surrounding areas. These schemes are therefore of major national importance considering these results.

The dams and channels carrying water into the city from Kunzvi and Musami would help create a greenbelt along the way.
The belt could become Harare’s biggest supplier of fresh vegetables. New methods of irrigation such as drip irrigation could be used to improve production and water conservation along the water pipeline. There is also the aspect of recreation. The city needs more recreational facilities. As the economy improves, people would want more recreational facilities.

Looking at the amount of boating and fishing taking place at the polluted Lake Chivero, one can be assured that once these dams are in place they could offer alternative recreational facilities for the residents.

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