THE incidence of cholera and other diarrhoeal diseases remains a red flag indicator to the poor state of services and the vulnerability of the WASH sector in Zimbabwe and this requires both the private and public sectors to ‘put heads together’ to strategize on how to effectively overcome these challenges, a senior government official has said.
Engineer Tinayeshe Mutazu, Chief Director for Water Resources, Irrigation Development and National WASHP Coordination, told a WASH Sector Work Group deliberating on strategic ways to keep improving water, sanitation, and hygiene services for urban and rural communities of Zimbabwe in light of the El Nino disaster, in Harare, Thursday, that the Zimbabwe Livelihoods Assessment Committee (ZIMLAC 2024) confirmed the challenge of low WASH service access in both rural and urban areas and this needs attention.
“The role of the WASH Sector Working Group is to provide a platform for state and non-state actors to jointly define the development trajectory that resonates with our national inspirations. We come here as equal partners to plan for sector development in a whole of society approach,” Eng Mutazu who is also the Chairperson of the WASH National Action Committee said.
Government, through the Food and Nutrition Council (FNC) established and continues to strengthen the national integrated Food and Nutrition Security Information System. Under the leadership of FNC, the Zimbabwe Livelihoods Assessment Committee (ZimLAC) remains committed to providing timely and reliable information on the food and nutrition security situation to inform the development of robust food and nutrition response programmes, policies and strategies.
The ZimLAC has since its inception undertaken 11 Urban and 23 Rural Livelihoods Assessments. Through these annual assessments, ZimLAC continues to contribute towards the realisation of Government’s desire of leaving no one and no place behind as it provides spatially resolved evidence to guide efficient targeting of interventions.
Additionally, the assessments have been pivotal in the identification of food insecure populations and households’ livelihoods challenges, enabling Government to respond in a timely manner, with the appropriate social protection interventions to address the identified context-specific challenges.
“Government remains committed to bring about a whole of government, whole of society approach to WASH Service delivery and to Leave No One Behind,” said Eng. Mutazu.
Government has made significant strides under the Presidential Rural Development Programme with currently over 2,960 boreholes drilled with over 250 business units established.
Work on Gwayi Shangaani and Kunzvi dam projects are progressing steadily as well the blue economy projects around the dams-the Business Units (BUs), climate proofed agriculture, fisheries, hydro-projects etc. Technical Committees have also been established to assist the Cities of Harare and Bulawayo deal with the challenges with respect to water and wastewater services.
The work group is reflecting and reviewing on:
- work done in the first half of the year 2024 in terms of improving WASH systems,
- further work needed to be done in future according to priority,
- to reflect on the sector’s response to the El Nino disaster if at all is sufficient to mitigate climate change,
- to explore innovative solutions that can be utilised and
- to forecast and engage in anticipatory planning for the expected La Nina event.
