FULL TEXT: Please End Harare's Water Crisis - Harare Residents On World Water Day

Combined Harare Resident Association (CHRA) has urged the government and the City of Harare to end the capital’s water crisis as in their statement commemoration World Water Day. In the statement, CHRA said some suburbs like Tafara have gone for 2 decades without water and Harare has to find a way to end the crisis:

CHRA STATEMENT ON WORLD WATER DAY

CHRA joins the world today in commemorating World Water Day under the theme valuing water. The theme comes at a time when water has become a scarce resource in Harare.

Harare City Council failed to produce adequate clean and safe water for Harare residents. In suburbs such as Tafara Ward 46, the area has more than 20 years without a single drop of water.

Apparently the city council is producing 440megalitres per day against a demand of 1200mega megaliters. In Harare 60% of treated water is being lost through water bursts and the responsiveness of council to such has not been good enough to preserve water as a valuable resource.

The shortage of this valuable resource has affected the productive time of women and young girls mostly as they are caregivers of the society.

In most cases they spent more than three hours at communal boreholes in an effort to access water. This has exposed them to all forms of abuse and harassment by water barons.

Water is the life blood of our economy and it is needed for life to exist. The shortage of water has crippled production of goods and services as it is essential.

CHRA will continue to call upon the government and the local authority to work together to end the water crisis through investing more resources to improve the water sources.