Is the fight against typhoid a reality?

Loverage Nhamoyebonde Features Correspondent
The unresolved issue of water disconnections has finally turned into a cliché as it was overdrummed and scrutinized from all angles.
Yet in reality, it is a very serious issue that council is arrogantly turning a blind eye to.
This is despite a High Court ruling that water disconnections are illegal.
Residents of Kuwadzana were recently cut off for debts they owe the city’s water department.

“I owe city council $220 and they cut off their service which will be resumed on condition that I pay every cent I owe them. We are now relying on borehole water. Due to long queues at the borehole, we are forced to ration water in such a way that will expose us to diseases. I don’t have any means to raise that amount any time soon and we cannot survive without water,” said Mrs Machiridza, a resident of Kuwadzana Extension.

In her hand is a notice of termination of water service from Harare City Council with a statement in bold print: “In accordance with the Regulations, supplies must be disconnected and the bearer is instructed to effect this disconnection.”

Said another resident Munyaradzi Mukusa: “We cannot comply with that because there is a bad relationship between residents and the city council which was fuelled by what we fetch from the media and the information we receive from residents’ representative organizations.

“Since we do not have money or any means of raising it we are left with no option but to illegally reconnect water supplies.
“We are going to reconnect water supplies since we cannot live without water. We are also angered by the corrupt behaviour that was displayed by city council employees as they were accepting bribes so as not to cut off water. Several households who owe the city council were not cut off as they paid bribes, so this unfair treatment has forced us to reconnect water. We know that what we are doing is illegal but the city council employees are also doing the same.”

Section 77 of the new Constitution of Zimbabwe classifies clean water and food as basic rights.
High Court Judge Justice Chinembiri Bhunu in a recent ruling outlawed all water disconnections and described Section 8 of the water by-law under statutory instrument (SI) 164 of 1913 which gives local authorities the power to disconnect defaulting residents, as illegal as it was ultra vires the new Constitution.

Mukusa said the complaints that the city is failing to offer services to residents because they are not meeting their dues is a flimsy excuse for incompetence.
“Residents for a long time now have endured brownish and smelly water and called on the powers that be to intervene and save them from a looming health hazard.
“We do not use tap water for cooking or drinking as it is very difficult to do so due to its smelly and brownish state.

“It is high time the blame game currently being enjoyed by the city council at the expense of the lives of people ends.
“Council must stop citing debts owed by residents as the cause of this problem as it is now an old trick, dull with overuse,” he said.

This has become an anthem and buzzword in several residential areas dotted around Harare.
“For a long time we have been paying for water that we never have and council is being insensitive for demanding payment for this brownish and smelly water.

“We are spending most of our time queuing for water at the borehole and we want council to stop demanding bills from us,” said another resident of Kuwadzana Extension who identified herself as Mai Nyandoro.

Too much has been done to push the city to put its house in order.
Sadly, the advice is falling on deaf ears as the shoddy services are now the order of the day.

This seemingly contagious attitude has not spared even the city’s public relations lieutenants.
Efforts by this reporter to get an explanation from Harare City Council were fruitless as the public relations department view the issue as a cliché, choosing to say the issue is now over drummed and the media is awash with it.

A social commentator Mr Alexandra Rusero said what Harare city was doing was a case of misguided priorities as it is battling to repair its tainted image after allegations of buying cars and misappropriation of loans meant to treat water and to improve service delivery.

“Harare is the largest city in Zimbabwe in terms of its business operations, size and capacity and for it to be on the forefront of saying residents will either have to pay or be cut off water is misguided.

“Measures must be put in place to find common ground with residents because at the end of the day it is tantamount to waging a war with the residents whom the city is supposed to serve,” said Mr Rusero.

Mr Rusero said it was not wise to deal with the issue from a legal point of view.
There is need to work against misplaced priorities, he suggests.

“City council is accused of misappropriating funds which are paid by the same residents they are cutting off.
“It is not a matter of what is constitutional or not but that of priorities.

“Residents have lost confidence in the city council and threatening them will only worsen the situation as they will silently protest and register displeasure through non-payment of bills.

“We will end up having a situation where the council will disconnect water and residents illegally reconnect and when the council returns to disconnect there is a possibility of unpleasant skirmishes.

“The city must have correct priorities and justify its existence to the residents so as to appeal to them for the payment of bills,” he said.
This issue came at a time when the City Council’s health department is working round the clock to fight typhoid and other water borne diseases.

Public areas and city health facilities are pasted with charts and billboards with the words “typhoid alert” in bold print while water disconnections have become the order of the day.

“Something is clearly wrong when we have a city that is on the forefront of disconnecting water at a time one of its departments is busy fighting typhoid which is an imminent disaster likely to rock the city worse than the cholera era of 2008 t 2009,” added Mr. Rusero

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