UNICEF and Australia working to improve water and sanitation in Zimbabwe’s towns
DFAT Harare Senior Program Manager Fadzai Mukonoweshuro and Program Manager Dagobert Mureriwa, are part of a team undertaking a final evaluation of the UNICEF Emergency Rehabilitation and Risk Reduction program, for which Australia was the main funder. Harare Counsellor Peter Lindenmayer spent a day with the review team recently, and wrote of his impressions.
The buildings in the high density Kuma One estate in the rural town of Bindura, were built in the 1950s as single men’s quarters for the employees of the local mines and farms – the name of the estate means “one room”. More than 40 basic ten-roomed sheds in asbestos sheet cluster together on a hillside in the suburb of Chipadze. Each of the rooms built to accommodate one man, now house families of up to six people, many with young children. The families farm small plots of land nearby and occasionally get paid work on local farms and mines.
Over the years, the water reticulation systems and sewerage piping in Kuma One progressively broke down, and the inhabitants had little money and few skills to repair them. A few years ago things got so bad that raw effluent often flowed around the buildings, turning the bare earth into germ-ridden muddy pools, leaving no hygienic outdoor space for the many children in Kuma One to play. Little wonder the area suffered badly from diarrhoeal diseases, including cholera during the 2008-2009 epidemics.
With untreated sewage bursting from broken pipes and flowing into water courses, piped water not properly treated and often not flowing at all, it was not surprising that many residents and businesses simply stopped paying for council services that were no longer being provided. And, unsurprisingly, citizens respect for and cooperation with their council had also fell away.
A few years ago this high density KumaOne area was regularly inundated with sewage flowing from burst and broken pipes. This new manhole (below) marks the location of a new sewer pipe in trenches dug by the Kumar One residents and supplied by the ER&RR project.
In 2009, with support from Australia and other donors, UNICEF selected Bindura (population 44,000) as one of the seven towns to work in under its Emergency Rehabilitation and Risk Reduction (ER&RR) program. In addition to the problems at Kuma One, many other aspects of Bindura’s water and sanitation system had ceased to function after a decade of insufficient resources and the flight of skilled staff had undermined Bindura Council’s regular maintenance and equipment replacement programs. In partnership with the Bindura Council and NGOs, ER&RR commenced a broadly-based program to restore proper functioning. Initially concentrating on providing clean water, the program bought treatment chemicals, fixed water purification systems, and replaced water piping to many parts of the city. The work also promoted hygiene, improving sewerage systems and encouraging the formation of many local Community Health Clubs (CHCs) to improve understanding of health threats and communication between the council and community members.
In Kuma One the CHCs helped organise gangs of residents to dig trenches for new sewerage piping bought by ER&RR, and to install plumbing equipment provided by the project. As a result, the area is free of sewage contamination. Many children still pay in the dirt around the Kuma One buildings – they have nowhere else to go – but the environment is much cleaner than it was, and illness rates have dropped.
The CHCs also assisted the communities, and particularly the women (who comprise the majority of members) to organise other self-help activities, such as internal savings and loans schemes. The CHCs members we met are keen to do more, and although the Town Clerk appears willing to support the groups, the Council doesn’t yet seem to have found a sustainable way to work with them.
A key goal of ERR&RR was to recreate the virtuous circle of improved service provision encouraging people to pay council rates, facilitated by effective billing systems that meant that revenue inflow allowed funding of essential maintenance. So as well as WASH hardware and health education, ER&RR also upgraded Bindura Council’s communications and information technology services. Residents can now receive more accurate and regular bills, and can pay these at sites much closer to home, contributing to a tripling the Council’s revenue since 2009.
This new manhole (above) marks the location of new sewerage piping installed by ER&RR in trenches dug by Kumar One residents.
While the ER&RR achievements are impressive, there is a lot more to be done before everyone in Bindura has access to basic WASH services and the town meets environmental standards. For a start, women and girls in Kuma One still need to walk some distance to collect water for drinking, cooking and even flushing toilets. Only a few households receive piped water, and even the Bindura Council offices only have piped water for small part of the day. More than 2,000 houses in the town remain unconnected to the sewerage system. Until the new trunk sewer line is installed and sewerage treatment works are finished, the system continues to pollute the local river, causing downstream problems.
Fortunately, Bindura will continue to receive some assistance from the Australian-funded Small Towns Water Sanitation and Hygiene program, which UNICEF is implementing in 14 towns across Zimbabwe. ER&RR and STWSH won’t be enough to fix the all the problems, but they will have made a big contribution, and as Town Clerk Mr Shangwa
Mavesera pointed out, seeing some things improve has boosted the morale and capacity of Council staff to do more themselves.
Customers receive service at a revenue office in Chipadze, Bindura. New computer and communication equipment allows on-line access to the main Bindura Council financial system. Residents in the area can now check their council accounts and pay rates and other charges without having to travel to the main building, encouraging improved council revenues, which can be used for maintenance of water and sanitation systems.