Harare, Zimbabewe
Credit: Pixabay

More than two million residents around Zimbabwe’s capital have no access to running water, as drought and breakdowns push the city system to collapse.

The situation is bad, period’, says spokesman for Harare council, as suburbs go weeks without water and cases of typhoid are reported.

Just 50% of 4.5 million people in Harare and four satellite towns currently have access to the municipal water supply, the city authority told Climate Home News.

“There is a rotational water supply within the five towns,” Harare city council corporate communications manager Michael Chideme said. “Some people are getting water five days a week especially in the western suburbs, but the northern suburbs are going for weeks without a drop in their taps.”

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Chideme said people were either depending on water merchants, open wells, streams or several council-drilled boreholes. “The situation is bad, period!”

Dr Jean-Marie Kileshye from WaterNet warned Harare’s water was highly polluted: “Water-borne diseases linked to these boreholes are on the rise, but people have […]