Chronicle Editor
Nqobile Tshili, Chronicle Reporter
ONLY Harare is worse than Bulawayo in terms of poor water service provision in the country, according to a recently released Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee (ZimVAC) 2020 Urban Livelihoods Assessment report.
ZimVAC carried out a survey last year and residents were asked to rate local authorities’ provision of water and its quality.
Matabeleland North Province had the most satisfied consumers of water nationwide.
Service delivery has continued to deteriorate in the metropolitan Bulawayo and Harare provinces since councillors from the various MDC opposition parties started running them in the early 2000s.
Sixty-six percent of Bulawayo residents were last year not satisfied with the quality of water being supplied by Bulawayo City Council (BCC) as 75 percent expressed dissatisfaction with water provision.
The worst water crisis in Bulawayo’s modern history which resulted in residents receiving water only once a week while some high lying areas went for about eight months without running water, was recorded in the city last year.
While the crisis was partly blamed on successive droughts, the city fathers have been accused of failing to plan ahead to secure water sources for the fast-growing city.
Last year, the water crisis resulted in the outbreak of diarrhoea leading to the death of at least 13 people in Old Luveve suburb.
The dismal performance has resulted in residents neglecting to pay their bills.
The ZimVAC report shows that last year there was an increase in the number of people drawing water from unprotected sources countrywide.
In Bulawayo, the percentage of residents using unprotected sources shot to 55 from 8 percent in 2019.
The report shows that Bulawayo faired only better than Harare in terms of water provision and water quality.
In Harare 59 percent of residents were extremely not satisfied with the quality of water being provided by the local authority, 24 percent were moderately not satisfied with the quality of water, five percent of the residents took a neutral position with 12 percent being content with the water they received from the Harare City Council.
None of Harare residents were extremely satisfied with the quality of water being provided by their local authority.
The figure even plummeted when Harare residents were quizzed if they were happy with water provision by the local authority.
The ZimVAC report shows that 61 percent of Harare residents were extremely not satisfied with the quality of water provided by HCC, 21 percent were moderately not satisfied as seven percent of the population took a neutral stand and 11 percent were satisfied with water provision by the local authority and one percent of the rate payers were extremely satisfied with water provision in the capital.
The report also shows that only Matabeleland North has more than 50 percent of residents that are satisfied with the quality and provision of water by local authorities in the province.
On the other hand, 59 percent of residents were happy with water provision in Matabeleland North while 11 percent took a neutral position as 20 percent were reported to be moderately unsatisfied with water provision in the province and 10 percent were extremely not happy with the province’s water provision.
“Nationally most households were not satisfied with water provision service being offered by either the local or the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa). 32 percent were dissatisfied and 28 percent very dissatisfied with the provision of water. The quality of the water provided was said to be satisfactory by only 35 percent of the household nationally. Matabeleland North had the highest proportion of households which reported that they were satisfied with the quality of water,” reads the report. — @nqotshili
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