By Conrad Mwanawashe
THE United States government has invested US$150,000 through the American Center for Diseases Control (CDC), in partnership with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) towards improving Harare’s water quantity and quality compromised primarily due to rapid population growth that has overwhelmed existing infrastructure.
The US has offered both financial and technical support towards improving access to safe water in line with the Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG6): Ensure access to water and sanitation for all.
“Chlorination of drinking water protects the health of communities from cholera and other waterborne diseases. Monitoring chlorine levels allows us to make sure that water remains safe for use and enables City authorities to respond rapidly if levels are too low,” said US Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Pamela Tremont said.
Access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene is the most basic human need for health and well-being. Billions of people will lack access to these basic services in 2030 unless progress quadruples.
According to the urban Zimbabwe Livelihoods Assessment Committee (ZimLAC) of 2024, only 23.5% of households in Harare have access to piped water, while 29.4% rely on boreholes and 36.6% on protected wells—alternative sources linked to diarrheal outbreaks.
The low availability of piped water has fuelled reliance on alternative sources and contributed to recurring waterborne disease outbreaks, including cholera in 2008 and 2018, typhoid in 2019, and the recent cholera outbreak (2023-2024) that lasted nearly 18 months.
Although the outbreak has been declared over, the underlying conditions that caused it to persist are still existing. During this outbreak, 31,391 cases were recorded by the 28th of July 2024 and 9,682 cases were reported in Harare.
Kuwadzana high density was not exempted from these challenges and over 2,600 cases were reported from the area.
In response to these challenges UNICEF, in partnership with the City of Harare, Oxfam, and VEI has launched a project to support water quality monitoring, data management for rapid response activities through Environmental Health Rapid Response teams, and the installation of a chlorine regulator and booster at the Kuwadzana extension reservoir.
UNICEF in collaboration with VEI and the Harare Water Department is supporting the Kuwadzana Reservoir Site, which has a capacity of 11.4 Mega Liters through the construction of a chlorinator building and installing a chlorinator regulator and dispenser at Kuwadzana.
The goal of the project is as follows:
• Installation of a 10 kg/hour gas chlorinator at the Kuwadzana Reservoir site to ensure that adequate free residual chlorine is maintained for the end users.
• Ensuring taps are in place so that both the Harare Water Department and Harare Health Department can test chlorine levels at the site.
• Facilitating information sharing between the departments of Health and Harare Water.
• Cleaning of the reservoir tank
With UNICEF funds in collaboration with the Harare Water Department and VEI, UNICEF will also support the inclusion of chlorinators and injectors at four other reservoirs (Kuwadzana, Marimba, Lochinvar, Kopje) in Harare, and the cleaning of the reservoirs.
UNICEF Representative to Zimbabwe, Etona Ekole, thanked the United States government for their broader funding streams that support UNICEF’s WASH initiatives.
“These resources have been pivotal in responding to multi-emergencies in Zimbabwe, particularly in areas such as Budiriro, Glen View, Kuwadzana, and Chitungwiza.
“To date, we have reached more than 72,000 individuals, including 33,000 children, with access to safe water through 39 established water points,” said Ekole.
Harare Health Department has relied on a paper-based system for water quality monitoring. While this approach has provided valuable data, it presents several challenges.
The manual data entry process adds time to the analysis, delaying the department’s ability to view results and take corrective actions. This can be particularly problematic during outbreaks like cholera, where timely spatial analysis of water quality data can inform epidemiological investigations.
Additionally, the Sampling Unit’s water quality monitoring of community water points, such as boreholes, is also paper based.
While NGO partners have conducted valuable monitoring, the lack of timely data sharing has limited the ability to inform corrective actions.
Furthermore, case investigation data from Case Area Targeted Interventions (CATIS) is not analyzed promptly to identify WASH risk factors, including the types of water sources used by cholera cases.
UNICEF in collaboration with Harare Environmental Health Department and Oxfam with technical support from CDC is working to enhance data sharing, consolidation, and management within the city and among partners.
All the partners are working to strengthen the capacity of the City of Harare Health Department to monitor water quality data and Case Area Targeted Interventions (CATIS) data to effectively detect contamination and share water quality data to ensure prompt response and to inform quick action in communities and the Harare Water Department.
