Logic Chatikobo,

In the low-income community of Hopley, residents are suffering from water stress, whereby the resource has become scarce due to both climate change factors such as prolonged dry periods and erratic rainfalls that have led to the dwindling in the water table, as well as human factors such as rapid urbanization that has forced people to be densely populated and scramble for safe water in their residential areas.

According to residents in the community, water scarcity limits access to safe water for drinking and practicing basic hygiene in the home, schools and at health-care facilities leading to threats of contracting diseases such as cholera and typhoid.

“The scarcity of water in Hopley is contributing to a lot of challenges especially for women and children who are forced to bear the burden of searching for the resource. Carrying water long distance is a challenge for children as exposes them to exploitation and sexual abuse. We are spending more than two months without water in our taps, yet we receive water bills from City Council. The backyard shallow wells are now dry since the country experienced low rainfall during the 2023/ 2024 season,” said Faisa Savanhu, a Hopley resident.

Savanhu also says they are now buying water from other people within the area who have boreholes for a fee. Some required to pay US$1O for unlimited supply of water for the whole month and others, US$1 for 4, 25 liter buckets.

“Due to the scarcity of water in the area, we end up buying from those who have boreholes for US$1 for 4 25-liter buckets. It is a challenge when you do not have money to buy the water, you are forced to travel longer distances to the nearby clinic or service station which is more than ten kilometers away, where there is a solar powered borehole that allows people to use the facility for free. The cost is in the travelling. It is difficult for the elderly who are no longer able to walk long distances in search of water,” Savanhu said.

Community Health advocates in Hopley say they scarcity for water has led to people searching for the resource from unclean sources, which is a growing concern that my lead to disease outbreaks.

“Women wake up at early as 2 o’clock in the morning in search of water, going as far as Mbudzi Cemetery or Waterfalls which is a risk to their wellbeing because they may be sexually assaulted during those hours. In addition, its now worrisome that people have to drink water from the Cemetery. People are spending more than 3 months without tapped water, and when it comes it is dirty yet people have no option but to drink it,” said Robert Dube, a community health advocate.

Zimbabwe’s 2013 constitution protects the right to water. Section 77 of the constitution states that every person has the right to ‘safe, clean, and potable water.’ The constitution says, the state ‘must take reasonable legislative and other measures, within the limits of the resources available to it, to achieve the progressive realization of this right.’

A Human Rights Watch, 2022 report found that the city’s perennial water crisis, which is linked to the cholera outbreak, is the result of the city’s obsolete water infrastructure, a ballooning population, severe droughts, and pervasive government corruption and mismanagement. Poor governance and disputes between the central government and the Harare City Council have hindered efforts to address the problems.

“Public sector corruption and mismanagement at the local and central government levels have exacerbated the government’s neglect of water infrastructure over the last two decades, compromising access to safe, clean water. Corruption is rife in the central government as well as within the Harare City Council and Chitungwiza municipality, negatively affecting service delivery,” reads the HRW report.