The Sunday Mail
“Residents should take part in social engineering of projects, civic education and offer community stewardship in maintaining infrastructure. Besides this, residents should pay for water and sanitation services rendered, so that local authorities generate finance to maintain infrastructure,” said Hardlife Mudzingwa, the programmes director for Community Water Alliance.
Community Water Alliance (CWA) is a grassroots-based civic society organization (CSO) that does advocacy work on three programme areas that include water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), environment and climate.
CWA has more than 25 000 individual members and 15 institutional members.
ZimFund is continuing with community engagement workshops aimed at sharing knowledge about ZimFund interventions in the communities, in view of fostering their engagement, ownership and sustainability of the projects.
These workshops, held in collaboration with local authorities, draw participants from residents, councillors, representatives from the Ministries of Finance and Economic Development; Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement; Local Government and Public Works, ZimFund Donors, local authority officials and the African Development Bank/ZimFund team.
“The engagement with residents, particularly through the community engagement workshop, was a good initiative by ZimFund. To improve citizen engagement, there is a need to further entrench citizen participation by ensuring that they self-organise on social engineering, civic awareness, community stewardship as well as monitor and observe infrastructure maintenance. There is need for social integrity pacts of residents with the local authority,” said Mudzingwa.
Two projects are currently ongoing under ZimFund and these are the Urgent Water Supply and Sanitation Rehabilitation Project (UWSSRP 11) and Emergency Power Infrastructure Rehabilitation Project (EPIRP II).
Under UWSSRP II, approximately 1,9 million people in Harare, Chitungwiza, Ruwa and Redcliff are expected to benefit from clean water and improved sanitation services and therefore, improved health and hygiene standards.
EPIRP II is being implemented in Harare, Bulawayo, Gweru, Kwekwe, Mutare and Hwange with a combined population of five million people. Some of the works in both projects have been completed while the expected completion of the remaining works is early 2020.
The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 6 calls for universal access to clean, safe and affordable drinking water and sanitation by 2030. Thus, there is need to invest in adequate infrastructure, provide sanitation facilities and encourage hygiene at every level.
This means that everyone has a part to play and more so, in maintaining infrastructure provided by various development partners such as ZimFund. Community organisations such as CWA are already implementing various initiatives aimed at empowering residents with knowledge.
“We have a campaign dubbed #SayNoToJecha (SayNoToSand) in our sewer system, which was initiated by our ward structures in Glen View. The purpose for this campaign is to enhance awareness on the dangers of pouring sand and hard objects in the water and sanitation infrastructure. Our teams are leading door-to-door campaigns, creating awareness on the role of residents in maintaining water and sanitation infrastructure.
“So far, we have seen a few residents who bought gully traps to avoid dropping spoons in the sewer and water system, which often leads to blockages. This response happened after our initial public awareness programs,” Mudzingwa said.
Many sewer system blockages are human-caused and preventable, hence the need for co-operation from members of the community towards such campaign initiatives.
Participation of CWA members in the recent ZimFund-Harare community engagement workshop empowered residents, together with their councillors, to proffer innovative solutions to their water challenges, especially in areas such as Emerald Hill, Sentosa, Greencroft and Avondale where ZimFund rehabilitated a non-functional water pump station which previously prevented water from getting to their houses.
ZimFund is a US$145 million water and sanitation and energy programme, which was established in 2010 after the 2008 cholera outbreak. The ZimFund programme is generously supported by the governments and people of Australia, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom.
ZimFund is managed by the African Development Bank (AfDB) as part of its operations to improve the quality of life in Zimbabwe. The African Development Bank also supports water and sanitation projects in Bulawayo and Marondera as well as the agriculture, transport, social, private, financial and energy sectors.
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ZimFund donors, the African Development Bank, its board of directors or the countries they represent. For feedback and more information, kindly contact ZimFund Communications via [email protected] and [email protected]
