Zimbabwe: Local NGO “Water advocacy drive” brings councils to order
By Admire Machiwenyika – A local Non-Governmental Organization which is currently conducting a series of paralegal training is satisfied its ‘water advocacy drive’ has finally yielded results with the local authorities responding to various petitions tabled by various residents across the high density suburbs of Harare.
Proceedings at Mbare
Proceedings at Mbare
Speaking in an interview on side-lines of the last day of a 3-day paralegal training held in Mbare recently, Community Water Alliance (CWA) Cprograms manager Hardlife Mudzingwa expressed satisfaction over responses shown by the local district authorities to various petitions tabled by residents.
“First we need to acknowledge that people have serious problems on water and sanitation within communities so far we to Mufakose, Glen View, Budiriro, Chitungwiza, Glen Norah and today we are in Mbare, there are a lot of problems”, said Mudzingwa.
“Secondly on the last day of the three-day training workshop we normally develop petitions that are submitted to the local District Council. We have received positive responses from the District Council and what we have seen is that if you quote particular section of the Zimbabwean Constitution relating to responsibilities and duties of bureaucracy they respond very fast”.
“We have received several written responses they are not only coming at district level, recently we have had a response given to our ward 33 committee from the chamber secretary of City of Harare Mr Kandemire and in that letter it is stated that the legal department of the City of Harare will be responding through an official communication,” he added.
Proceedings at Mbare
Some of the petitions logged by the Mbare residents included issues such as incorrect water billing, buildings on top sewer pipes, absence of water and many more.
The training programs that started some few months back have already covered high density residential areas such as Mufakose, Budiriro, Glen View, Glen Norah and Chitungwiza
Most major cities in the country are facing water shortages due to various reasons that vary from unavailability, dilapidated equipment, and failure to acquire treatment chemicals among many others reasons.
