Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

With this being my second post, I think it’s time to get into the specifics of urban water and sanitation a bit more.

What are the reasons for poor access to water and lack of sanitation in areas of Africa? What exacerbates the problem? How can we help the problem? What is being done about the situation?

To answer at least the first two questions, I am going to look at Zimbabwe as a case study, which will hopefully help us to see at least the main problems associated with poor access to water and sanitation.

First of all, what is Water scarcity?

Well, water scarcity is defined as the point at which aggregate impact of all users impinges on the supply or quality of water under prevailing institutional arrangements to the extent that the demand by all sectors, including the environment, cannot be satisfied fully (UN, 2006).

Zimbabwe, with a rapidly expanding population, especially in the last 30 years, finds itself prone to increasing urbanization. Therefore, the increase in population in turn places additional strain on the provision of basic services such as safe clean water and adequate sanitation in urban cities. The rates of urbanization and population growth in general, have far exceeded the capacities of local authorities to provide essential services (Nyemba et al. (2010). Water scarcity is typically a massive problem in the southern part of Africa, Zimbabwe for example. Swatuk (2008) states that in Zimbabwe, ‘underdevelopment is characterised by financial, human and institutional constraints’.

Looking more closely at Bulawayo, the second largest city of Zimbabwe with a population of more than one million (Mutengu et al. 2007), we can see that the issue they have with regards to water is that the area receives very little rainfall. Water scarcity in the region is very severe, and somewhat extreme. Zooming in on the city of Bulawayo, Mpopoma and Pumula and two low-income suburbs of the city. In contrast, Khumalo is a high-income suburb. A study found that residents in Mpopoma had access to water only 2 days a week, whereas those in Khumalo had access to water for longer periods; as long as 5 days in some instances (Mutengu et al. 2007). Although Mpopoma is on higher ground than Khumalo, which is found on low lying land, thus decreasing the amount of water availability in Mpopoma due to physical factors, this was not the main reason for the differences in access. The discrepancies in access to water between the rich and poor of Khumalo and Mpopoma respectively, was a result of ‘skewed water distribution policies implemented by the city council’, where evidently, the rich were favoured over the poor. Therefore it follows that poorer people are usually at a disadvantage when it comes to access to water (UNDP 2006). So, as well as increasing urbanization and decreasing reliability of rainfall, access to water and sanitation can also greatly be affected and influenced by governmental and state policies, which have the power to facilitate or hinder access.