HARARE, 14 January 2008 (IRIN) - Authorities told residents in the capital, Harare, and Chitungwiza, a dormitory town 35km to the southeast, that water supplies would be cut for seven days because persistent power cuts had affected bulk water treatment and distribution.

A spokesman for the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA), the parastatal responsible for national water treatment and distribution, told local media at the weekend that the frequent power failures at Harare's Morton Jaffray Waterworks would mean that "Harare and Chitungwiza will, this whole week, experience a loss of water supplies due to problems beyond our control."

An outbreak of more than 400 diarrhoea cases - markedly more than expected for this time of year - in two low-income suburbs, Mabvuku and Tafara, during the recent holiday period were attributed to Harare's already erratic water supplies.

There are fears that the week-long blanket water cut could lead to increased health risks from waterborne diseases, although many residents in the capital have been receiving heavily discoloured water for the past month.

ZINWA's general manager, Lisben Chipfunde, said the week-long water cut was because "Unlike in situations of power cuts, whereby everything returns to normal after reconnection, it takes a bit of time to reset the pumps and have them channelling water to the other pump stations."

However, ZINWA employees who declined to be identified told IRIN that the water shortages had nothing to do with power cuts, but were because "We have run out of chemicals to treat the water. Water treatment chemicals will be sourced from Zambia and Malawi and, within a week, we hope to have received the chemicals."

A senior ZINWA official, who declined to be identified, told IRIN that "Residents have been receiving strange muddy water because chemicals were running out."

Health concerns

The lack of access to potable water is raising serious concerns among humanitarian and advocacy organisations. "It's particularly important for children to have access to clean safe water but these water cuts will make the task of availing safe water to children very difficult," James Elder, spokesman for the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) told IRIN.

Elder said UNICEF was providing water tanks in Harare suburbs affected by outbreaks of diarrhoea and also to Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo, in the southeast of the country. The children's fund was also distributing water purification tablets.

"The water cuts in Harare and Chitungwiza come at a time when we are already responding to water shortages in Bulawayo and Harare, and diarrhoea outbreaks in some outer Harare suburbs."

Precious Shumba, spokesperson for the Combined Harare Residents Association, a civic organisation advocating good local governance, said the weeklong water cut was likely to result in serious health issues, and blamed the absence of an elected city authority. In 2001, the ruling ZANU-PF government replaced Harare's elected city authority with a government-appointed commission.

"ZINWA can bring a long list of excuses for poor delivery, but water shortages were never experienced under a democratically elected local authority," she said.

"The current government-appointed commission running the city of Harare has also failed to deliver, as refuse has not been collected for several months, making it possible for waterborne diseases to spread."

Johnny Rodrigues, chairman of the watchdog organisation, the Environmental Taskforce, said waterborne diseases was not the only threat to the health of residents, and that "ZINWA is discharging raw untreated effluent from industry and residential houses into Harare's main water supply dam. The heavy lead metals in industrial effluent expose residents to other diseases, such as cancer."

ZINWA has argued that the release of raw untreated sewage was a consequence of being unable to perform maintenance work on sewage treatment plants because of a shortage of foreign currency.

Zimbabwe is suffering the world's highest inflation rate, officially cited at 8,000 percent but estimated at 25,000 percent by independent economists.

Many Harare residents told IRIN they had been filling every available container with water in preparation for the water cut. Cuthbert Tambe said he had instructed his children to harvest as much rainwater as possible while he was at work, by collecting runoff from the roof and other buildings. "Over the past month, where possible, we have been harvesting rainwater, and of course it has turned out to be much cleaner than treated water."

Bottled water appears to be in short supply in Harare, and only affordable to a few. Hotels have begun limiting their number of guests in anticipation of the weeklong water cut.

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