By Margret Chogugudza-Chitownews Reporter
Chitungwiza is facing a serious water crisis with the tapes running dry in most suburbs. The town has been facing the challenge of water supply for the past five years but the crisis has intensified in the last two months. The residents’ constitutional rights of having access to clean water are being violated by the municipality of the Chitungwiza as it is failing to provide the residents with clean and portable water.
In most suburbs there has not been clean running water in the tapes for at least two months whilst other suburbs are having water in their tapes once or twice a month. Despite the fact that the residents are not accessing water the council continues to bill them. Service delivery in the town of Chitungwiza is poor while rampant abuse of funds by the council has been reportedly extensively.
The town has been transformed into a slum settlement without basic services as women and children are always seen hunting for water. Scenes of huge crowds thronging boreholes and wells have become common place. Everywhere people are seen carrying containers of water in their heads, pushcarts and vehicles.
Due to the patriarchal hegemony prevailing in Zimbabwe water shortage have become a gender issue as women are tasked with the house keeping roles bear the brunt of water shortages while men fulfill the bread winning roles away from home. Women and children spend many hours in long queues at the few functioning boreholes as some of the community boreholes are no longer working. Water in Chitungwiza is now so scarce that the residents are now buying water from those with wells. It is very unfortunate that the water table has fallen as the dry season is now approaching hence some of the wells have no water.
Water shortage in Chitungwiza has led some of the residents to resort to the use of dirty water from the nearby rivers and unsafe wells. The use of unsafe and dirty water has dangerous consequences on the health of the residents as they can suffer from water borne diseases. Toilets in most homes are not clean due to the shortage of water.
