Irene Phiri (37) prepares for her two daughters to go to school before she dashes off to the bus stop to board the cheapest mode of transport to the capital city where she works in a boutique.
This has become the daily routine for the single mother, who rents a two-roomed house in Zengeza 2 in Chitungwiza.
Despite water challenges in her area, Phiri has made it a point that she has enough for her and the children to bath while sparing a few buckets for household chores.
Every week, she makeS sure that she stores water in large containers, something she and fellow tenants have become accustomed to for many years.
Water in Chitungwiza is rationed and many families rely on borehole water.
“Water is a valuable commodity here in Chitungwiza and we use it sparingly,” Phiri told The Standard.
“We receive council water for three or four days in 10 days or in two weeks.
“At our lodgings we give each family turns to fill up containers.”
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Chitungwiza receives its water from Harare City Council, which is also struggling to deliver potable water to its own residents.
According to sources at Chitungwiza Municipality, the local authority is receiving seven megalitres per day against a daily demand of 70 megalitres.
To exacerbate the situation, Chitungwiza Municipality owes the capital city millions of dollars in unpaid water charges.
Since gaining full municipal status in 1981, Chitungwiza Municipality has been failing to provide reliable water access.
“This water problem has been there over the years, but the situation worsened at the turn of the new millennium,” said Gogo Chipfakacha of Zengeza 4.
“This issue about water and sanitation has been known by council over the years and they failed to address it.
“People are now forced to fetch water from unsafe sources, a task which is done by women and children.
“It’s time council worked on its own source of water rather than rely on water from Harare.”
Gogo Chipfakacha was hopeful that the master plan that is being crafted by Chitungwiza will make water provision a priority.
She said the policies that council was working on should address the plight faced by women, children and other vulnerable groups in Chitungwiza.
Globally, women are most likely to be responsible for fetching water for households, while girls are nearly twice as likely as boys to bear the responsibility, and spend more time doing it each day, according to a new report released today by Unicef and WHO.
According to the report, globally, 1.8 billion people live in households without water supplies on the premises.
The report also shows that more than half a billion people still share sanitation facilities with other households, compromising women’s and girls’ privacy, dignity, and safety.
Spare Chaparapati of St Mary’s said they could spend a month without water and would rely on boreholes or buying the commodity.
“We can go for weeks without potable water while others do not have the commodity for many years,” she said.
“As for toilets, it’s a disaster as the system is obsolete and fails to cope with the growing population.
“At some homes there are no toilets while other toilets are blocked.”
She said women and girls bore the brunt since they were more likely to feel unsafe using a toilet outside the home and disproportionately feel the impact of lack of hygiene.
Chitungwiza Municipality, just like most urban local authorities in the country, lack financial autonomy, which hamstrings service delivery.
Among a number of detrimental policies, urban council have to seek the Local Government ministry’s approval for any tariff, something that limits their capacity to raise revenue.
In 2013 the then Local Government minister Ignatius Chombo directed local authorities to scrap all outstanding rates as at June 30 2013.
He said the move to scrap the rates was in line with Zanu PF’s pro-poor policy championed by the then president Robert Mugabe.
Since then, most councils failed to recover and are struggling to provide service delivery.
In 2010 the government introduced the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) where legislators representing 210 constituencies have access to the fund, which is allocated by Treasury to initiate development projects.
Finance minister Mthuli Ncube has increased the CDF budget allocation for this year.
MPs have over the years complained that the CDF allocation was not adequate to carry out meaningful development projects owing to inflation.
“The Constituency Development Fund is a drop in the ocean to the problems that most constituencies face,” said St Mary’s MP Brighton Mazhindu.
“It's something, but it doesn't address a quarter of the problems constituencies are facing as the national budget allocations to ministries and the devolution funds to local authorities are also not enough,” he said.
“For example I need to develop all the wards, but the fund is only enough for two projects that the people have requested.
“So the CDF is not enough to address problems faced by women and children, it should be enough to build clinics, schools and play centres, but the disbursement is not even enough to do repairs at the institutions.”
Mazhindu said gender responsive budgeting was critical because women and children are the most vulnerable groups.
“We have invested very little in trying to address challenges being faced by women especially in areas of health and sanitation, training of young women and empowerment,” he said.
“Our infant mortality rate is still too high for a country with nearly 45 years of independence and its a critical area which requires the Ministry of Finance and economic development to put in more resources.”
Mazhindu said he had since submitted projects for approval to Parliament under the CDF and these include installation of a motorised borehole at Manyame Phase 5 shopping centre.
Other projects include the renovation and upgrading of St Mary's community hall as well as erecting of a perimeter wall around the St Mary's baby clinic currently being used as cholera treatment centre.
He said some funding would be channelled towards the construction of a bridge behind Chaminuka Primary school linking old St Mary's and Manyame Park.
Mazhindu said a number of policies have failed to address the water and sanitation situation in Chitungwiza.
Development and public health experts said budgetary allocations for Wash have been significantly lower to close the Wash service needs.
Community Water Alliance coordinator Hardlife Mudzingwa said Wash funding was a serious challenge.
“At national level government funding for Wash moved a bit up to 4,5% of the national budget, but still that funding is too little to cover serious gaps on access to sustainably managed Wash services,” Mudzingwa said.
“Government from national level to local authority is not doing enough in terms of funding for Wash and the target that government set for themselves is that not less than 7% of the national budget should fund access to Wash services, but in 2023 only 4% was allocated towards Wash.”
Mudzingwa said weak policies affect women in urban areas the most.
“Women fulfil unpaid domestic care work and that include fetching water whose burden is unbearable,” he said.
Mudzingwa said his organisation was advocating for the increase of the national fiscal Wash commitment to at least 15% of the national budget.
However, residents say the only panacea to Chitungwiza’s water and sanitation problems lies in the crafting of people-centred policies.
“We need to build our own source of raw water and a treatment plant so that we address the perennial water shortages,” he said.
“We also need to budget for a new sewer system starting from the sewer piping infrastructure; a refurbished sewer treatment plant.
“Hopefully, the master plan will include these pertinent projects for a smart city model. Investors will then invest in areas of priority as identified in the masterplan.
“Stakeholder buy-in is also very important so that we all have a shared vision of what we want to do and pull our energies and resources together towards that envisaged dream of a new smart city.”
Kumalo, a former Chitungwiza MP, said the CDF and devolution funds to some extent have brought some temporary reprieve to Chitungwiza’s water and sanitation challenges.
“There is a need for a permanent or long-term solution as the town continues to grow and as we move towards achieving the smart city objective,” he said.
Rudo Murungu, gender focal point person for Chitungwiza Municipality, could not be reached for comment.
Gender Links in partnership with the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works is implementing a gender mainstreaming programme in all the 92 local authorities in the country since 2010.
In July 2023 the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works issued a directive to all local authorities to submit gender responsive budget statements with their budgets starting this year.
“A gender responsive budgeting considers the different needs and priorities of men and women, boys and girls, and allocates resources accordingly,” said Gender Links Zimbabwe and regional programmes director Priscilla Maposa.
“It seeks to promote gender equality, increase citizen participation, improve service delivery, improve transparency and accountability and support sustainable development in local authorities.”
Maposa said out of the 92 local authorities in the country, only 68 had submitted their gender responsive budget statements.
She said her organisation was working with the government to encourage gender responsive budgeting within local authorities.
Residents said the country’s monetary policies; including national budgets look pleasant on paper, but have had a deficit when it comes to the implementation and availing of the funds.
Chitungwiza was formed in 1978 by the amalgamation of Seki, Zengeza and St Mary’s before it gained municipal status in November 1981.
- This article was produced with support from Gender Links under the Gender Responsive Budgeting programme.
