Water provision, a matter of life and death

municipality to exercise sufficient dexterity, care and dedication.
It is also one of the most unappreciated business in the world. In most cases, any error on water resources management will have deleterious effects on the people, animals and crops in the form of diseases and deaths.
These catastrophic effects are always on the back of the mind of each staff member of the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA), from the Chief Executive Officer to the last man, as they walk into their respective stations of work every day.
What even makes this business more complex is the fact that water is life. Water resources management business is a business that only stops when life stops, hence it requires dedicated men and women who do not mind working over weekends, holidays and even the night.
Most people do not even know water resources management entails and they are not even aware of what the water goes through before it can be used in the house, before the farmer can irrigate his field or even before the miner can use it in his plant.
In most cases water authorities and municipalities have always been on the receiving end of criticism, some due and some undue, from water users, but this has never deterred ZINWA from diligently executing its mandate as enunciated in the ZINWA and Water Acts.
One of the basic tenets of these two Acts of Parliament is their emphasis on stakeholder participation in water resources management.
ZINWA has taken water resources management directly to the water user through catchment and sub-catchment councils. In Zimbabwe, the country now stands divided into seven catchments, based on the country’s seven major rivers, namely Runde, Mzingwane, Gwayi, Sanyati, Mazowe, Manyame and Save.
These seven catchments have catchment and sub-catchment councils that manage water affairs there.
But in 2009, ZINWA, through the Quality Assurance Department headed by Mrs Anna Nyaradzai Matenga, took its business beyond mere water provision to the empowerment of locals to have control and total appreciation of the water in their surroundings.
The first step of this exercise was the inaugural commemorations of the World Water Monitoring Day on September 26, 2009, at Goromonzi High School.
World Water Monitoring Day is a United Nations Day, marked on September 18, each year and is meant to raise awareness among local people by enabling them to monitor the quality of water in their surrounds.
This is usually made possible through the provision of easy-to-use water testing kits that allows the communities to monitor the basic quality parameters of water bodies. These quality parameters usually include the temperature of the water, its turbidity and pH level.
On September 26, 2010, ZINWA handed over easy to use water testing kits to 29 schools in in Goromonzi District, which falls under the Nyagui and Upper Mazowe sub-catchment councils in Mazowe Catchment.
The Minister of Water Resources Development and Management, Honourable Samuel Sipepa Nkomo, handed over these kits and pledged that the programme would spread to other schools across the country.
In 2010, follow-ups were made to review the progress of the programme, where it was established that the schools had acquitted themselves very highly in testing water from their local water bodies and the initiative had also been taken beyond schools to parents through environmental and geography clubs.
The communities are now empowered enough to establish the quality of their water as well as recommend remedial action, where such action is needed. This is very important, especially in Zimbabwe where the majority of rural communities rely on rivers, wells, streams and springs for their domestic water needs.
The reviews saw Minister Nkomo, handing over certificates to schools, teachers and pupils for their efforts in the monitoring of the quality of raw water from rivers and other sources. It also saw the data and information collected from the schools being fed into the global World Water Monitoring Day database, thereby placing these schools, ZINWA and Zimbabwe on the global map on water issues.
This information now forms part of the World Water Monitoring Day database and statistics.
In appreciation of these efforts by ZINWA and the schools, the World Water Monitoring Day Water Champion Awards awarded ZINWA the first position in Africa.
The Water Champion Awards recognised that ZINWA had empowered the local communities, through schools, to monitor the quality of their water and even made follow ups to ensure the success or otherwise of the programme.
“The Zimbabwe National Water Authority, in conjunction with the Ministry of Education and Culture, went beyond simply giving local schools tasks: they went out to review the progress.
ZINWA enabled pupils and teachers to monitor river sources and encouraged future participation from students through recognition and WWMD incentives,” read the judges’ citation.

 

The Authority will receive an honorary plague as well as easy-to-use water testing kits of their choice valued at USD 1000.
ZINWA Public Relations Manager, Mrs Marjorie Munyonga, said the award was clear show of faith and confidence of in the Authority.
“We are naturally happy by this recognition on the world stage. It is more than elating to note that our efforts have been recognised at UN level, taking into account the humble starting that this project had.
“Such an award is very encouraging especially when we consider that water resources management is a business that is very unpopular with a lot of people who do not appreciate its complexity. We will continue to empower communities to monitor the quality of their water,” said Mrs Munyonga.
She said the Authority will intensify water monitoring to ensure that people appreciate water quality issues and desist from polluting this very precious resource and also help them recommend remedial action before lives are lost.
“To us, this award and achievement is a result of the team spirit in ZINWA. Teamwork is one of the core values that have driven this authority from strength to strength. We are one big team working towards one goal, which is the provision of safe water to the people of Zimbabwe,”she said.