*
Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Engineering, P.O. Box M.P. 167, Mount Pleasant, Harare,
Zimbabwe
Abstract
Good water governance, has been regarded as a sine qua non for improving the management of world water resources. Stakeholder participation is considered an important precondition for improving water governance. This paper reports on how it is being implemented in urban areas in Zimbabwe by studying how this is being undertaken in the city of Harare. The study was not designed to generate generalisable findings but to gain insights into the salient features of water governance in the urban areas. Three areas of investigation were chosen for analysis; whether water shaped the political agenda as expressed in local elections; perceptions and actions of the different actors and information about new water institutions.
There was some degree of stakeholder participation, which, however, was compromised by the fact that it was uncoordinated, involved a few stakeholders (it excluded the generality of the residents) and tended to occur outside the designated formal channels. Interference from
* Corresponding author
Email address: manzungu@ecoweb.co.zw (E. Manzungu)
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central government was another problem. It can be concluded that improving governance of water management in Zimbabwe ‘s urban areas faces more challenges than in the rural areas.
For example unlike their rural counterparts urban residents were not considered as stakeholders in their own right.
Keywords : Water governance; urban areas; Preliminary observations; Harare; Zimbabwe
1. Introduction
Increasingly, good governance, which is said to be characterised by transparency and accountability, participatory mechanisms appropriate to local realities, needs and wishes, and a proper definition of the role of government agencies, has been regarded as a sine qua non for improving the management of world water resources. To emphasise the point the world water crisis has been described as a crisis of governance (GWP, 2000; 17). Despite many attempts aimed at involving all people with an interest in water, or stakeholders in common parlance, in its management, formidable challenges with regards to how good water governance can be achieved still remain. This paper focuses on this notion of stakeholder participation as a proxy for good water governance.
Stakeholder participation in water management, which owes its origin to the Rio-Dublin principles (GWP-TAC, 2000), has been widely adopted as a policy and strategy instrument in
Zimbabwe. It was provided for within the framework of catchment and sub-catchment councils. The country was divided into seven catchment councils, namely Gwayi, Mazowe,
Manyame, Mzingwane, Runde, Sanyati and Save on the basis of the major river systems.
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Under them are sub-catchment councils that have jurisdiction over areas that roughly coincide with the areas drained by the main the tributaries. The functions of catchment councils are to prepare outline plans, determine applications and grant permits, regulate and supervise the exercise of water rights and supervise performance of sub-catchment councils. Sub-catchment councils carry out actual day-to-day water management functions (Zimbabwe, 2000ab).
Catchment and sub-catchment councils democratically elect their representatives from the major stakeholder groups. Government regulations identify stakeholders as rural district councils, farmers (communal, resettlement, small-scale, large-scale commercial, indigenous commercial), urban authorities, large-scale miners, small-scale miners and any other stakeholder group catchment or sub-catchment councils may identify (Zimbabwe, 2000a;
Zimbabwe, 2000b). Representatives to catchment and sub-catchment councils elect office bearers from among their ranks the most important of which is the chairperson. The chief operating officer of the catchment council is a government-appointed catchment manager.
Catchment councils are assisted by the national water management agency, the Zimbabwe
National Water Authority (ZINWA), which presides over management of the national water resources. The Department of Water Development (DWD) is responsible for policy formulation.
The expectation was that improved governance of water resources through stakeholder participation would contribute to solving the racially skewed access to water where a white commercial farming sector representing less than 1% of the population used 85% of the developed water resources to the disadvantage of the majority black population. This situation was blamed for food and water insecurity among the black population. Low crop production in the black-tilled was blamed on poor access to water.
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The inclusion of local rural and urban authorities in the new stakeholder institutions implies that there was an expectation that this would help to solve water supply problems. About a third (31%) of rural people in Zimbabwe, who constitute 70% of the country’s population, lack access to safe water, compared to 1% in urban areas (Chenje and Johnson, 1996). The figures for sanitation are 68% and 4% respectively. The present social, political and economic environment in the country suggests that these figures are changing for the worse. In the rural areas this was because of politically inspired withdrawal of donor support from the sector, support that had played a pivotal role since the attainment of independence in 1980
(Machingambi and Manzungu, 2003). In urban areas the situation deteriorated due to inadequate investment. Squatting, which significantly increased after the beginning of the fast track land reform programme in July 2000 (blamed for promoting lawlessness), worsened the situation. For example at least three major squatter settlements have sprouted in Harare, the capital city, with tacit government approval. This has put a heavy strain on domestic water provisioning.
Analyses of stakeholder participation in the new water institutions have largely been confined to rural stakeholders (see for example Dube and Swatuk, 2002; Kujinga and Manzungu, 2003 among others). This is a significant oversight given that urban centres are home to educated and skilled people who potentially can enrich the governance process. The second reason is that urban centres bring a variety of stakeholders in close proximity. This could help the participatory process. This oversight underlines the importance of examining how stakeholder participation in general and governance in particular is being undertaken within urban areas in
Zimbabwe. To answer this question a selection of stakeholders in the most urbanised catchment in the country namely, the Manyame Catchment Area (Zanamwe, 1997) was
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undertaken. The specific geographical area was the city of Harare. It should be stressed that this was a limited study meant to obtain information for the design of a more comprehensive study. This paper is therefore not preoccupied with the generalisability of the findings but with drawing insights about the salient issues.
2. Methodology
2.1. The study area
The city of Harare falls under the jurisdiction of the Upper Manyame sub-catchment one of the five sub-catchments that constitute the Manyame Catchment area. (The others are Middle
Manyame, Lower Manyame, Angwa-Rukomechi and the Msengezi). In Upper Manyame is found two major cities, Harare and Chitungwiza, and several small towns such as Banket,
Ruwa, and Norton. The main water source is Lake Chivero. Harare’s treatment works, the
Morton Jaffray Water Treatment Works, also supply water to the nearby towns of
Chitungwiza, Ruwa, Norton, and Epworth. Close to 3 million people are served by the water works (CSO, 2003). Water is mainly used for residential, industrial, commercial and agricultural activities. This paper does not discuss agricultural water use.
Harare is facing both water quantity and water quality problems. It is predicted that in the next five years water scarcity will be an acute problem in the city (Nhapi and Hoko, 2002). The main water source, Lake Chivero, has poor water quality partly because of sewage effluent, which flows into it (Magadza, 1997; Moyo, 1998).
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2.2. Data collection
A selection of stakeholders was chosen for obtaining insights into the water issues of Harare
City (Table 1). These included city authorities, city residents, non-governmental organisations and residents’ associations. Interview guides were used to solicit information from the respondents.
Table 1:
3. Findings
3.1. Individual residents and their representatives
Table 2 presents a combined analysis of the perceptions of Hatcliffe residents and their representative concerning various water issues. The findings presented here are based on interviews held with ten residents of Hatcliffe suburb, designated as ward 45, and the ward councillor. The choice of Hatcliffe was because of the possibility of easily getting information. As already indicated the exercise was meant to gain insights about the pertinent water governance issues.
Water as a political issue
Water did not appear to be part of the local political process in that it did not feature in the
2002 local elections that ushered a new council dominated by the opposition party, the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Issues that were said to feature in the local
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elections included job creation, improved transport services and access to residential stands.
On his part the councillor did not have an election manifesto and was generally unaware of the critical water issues. He also did not have any knowledge about the new water institutions.
The macro-political cloud also seemed to hang over the City Council. For example the Mayor of the City was arrested on more than one occasion when he attempted to meet residents to explain the situation regarding lack of water in some suburbs. It was alleged that the mayor had a political agenda. He was subsequently suspended on allegations of incompetence and interference with tender procedures. However, this version of the saga has not received popular acceptance. In fact there is a feeling that the minister was trying to undermine an opposition-dominated council, a charge, which is buttressed by failure to secure foreign currency for water treatment. Foreign currency is now under the direct control of the government.
This political high stakes game has led to some residents to want to de-link politics from water issues. For example some respondents seemed afraid of discussing issues which they had raised at campaign meetings and asked questions such as, “What does that have to do with water?”
Meanwhile the City has been also prevailed upon to supply settlements created by the land reform programme which was initiated by the government while it is failing to meet demand.
Perceived water problems
Table 2 shows the perceived problems in the water sector as given by the sampled residents of
Hatcliffe.
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Table 2
The majority of the respondents felt that the water supply in the City was regular. This was because they received constant supplies of water throughout the year. Supply was said to be a problem on those occasions when there were faults such as pipe bursts or problems with pumping of water to the main reservoir tank. This was supported by the fact that all the respondents had had problems related to the supply of water in the six months preceding the survey. The longest period the residents had gone without water continuously was a week.
Usually the water supplies were restored within a day or two. On those occasions when the
City Council failed to supply water the residents resorted to buying water from a nearby school at US$0.10/ 20 litres. They also fetched water from unprotected wells or a borehole in the area during such times. Due to financial constraints the City Council does not provide water using bowsers during water supply disruptions.
Water rates are perceived to be fair by the majority of the respondents. They spent less than
10% of the total household income on the water bill. However, 20% of the respondents stated that the rates were high. These were also those who spend between 11-20% of the total household income. None of the respondents had had water supplies cut for non-payment of the rates. However, one respondent had had supplies cut for non-payment of ambulance hire charges.
A total of eighty percent of the respondents felt that water pollution was a major problem in the City. Sewage which flows into water bodies and industrial effluent were cited as the major
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sources of pollution. Water pollution was said to be responsible for diseases such as cholera and diarrhoea.
Awareness of new management institutions
Table 3 shows the awareness of respondents of water issues.
Table 3 shows that none of the respondents knew the new water management institutions which were created by the new Water Act. It is interesting to note that some respondents, including the councillor were not aware of the source of water for the City. Very few respondents knew where the water treatment works for the City are located.
3.2. Combined Harare Residents’ Association
The Combined Harare Residents’ Association was formed in 1999 primarily to represent and support member associations and all residents of the City by advocating for effective, transparent and affordable municipal and other services. It links the residents to the City
Council and encourages civic participation in local government affairs. Currently out of the
45 wards in Harare 39 wards are members of the organisation.
The initial membership was mainly from the wards in the northern suburbs of Harare, the soc called low-density areas with residents that relatively well off. This gave the Association an elitist appearance. However, the Information Officer pointed out that most of the residents of the low-density suburbs were moving out of the country and hence the organisation was now left with mainly member associations from the high-density suburbs who could be said to be less well off.
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The organisation was said to be aware of some of the problems the City was facing in the water sector, especially with regards to water quality. The organisation is not a member of either the Manyame Catchment Council or the Upper Manyame Sub-catchment Council. The
Association appears to be more preoccupied with the general prevailing political situation in the City. For example, the Association has taken the government to court concerning the suspension of the mayor and some of the councillors.
3.3. Harare Municipality
The Principal Water Engineer of the City of Harare stated that the City has enough sources of raw water to meet its needs. What the City lacked was the capacity to purify water to meet demand because of rapid population increases. The City also did not have the financial resources to expand the water treatment works. The situation is made worse by the fact that the equipment needed has to be imported. Foreign currency is generally scarce in the country.
Increased demand for water is also due to activities such as watering gardens and the filling of swimming pools. Part of the City’s water problems emanate from the fact that the City
Council has not been able to educate residents on ways of conserving water or informing the residents on the water situation in the City. The City has generally not engaged stakeholders in the management of its water resources. The City is however involved in a number of initiatives that involve water, e.g. Municipal Development Partnership (MDP), that promotes sustainable urban agriculture, Southern Centre for Energy and Environment involved with domestic water supply and Environment Africa aimed at cleaning up the polluted water rivers as well as preventing pollution. Significantly these efforts were coordinated.
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Almost all residents of the City have access to water. However, residents of settlements which were created by the land reform programme are not yet connected to the City’s water network. The decision to connect them, or not to, rests with the politicians and not the City’s water department.
The Council is aware of the institutions that are in place to manage water in the country and the Council is represented on the Manyame Catchment Council by its Senior Civil
Engineering Technician. This perhaps showed that the City did not attach much importance to the activity.
3.4 Catchment Manager
While catchment councils are made up of elected representatives from sub-catchments, the
Catchment Manager is not elected but is a public servant. The Catchment Manager for the
Manyame Catchment Council pointed out that the process of creating stakeholder institutions had benefited from the financial support of donor organisations and aid from other countries.
When these pulled out of the process the institutions were left financially unstable. This was why stakeholder participation in the catchment was only beginning to take off the ground despite the fact that the institution had been set up several years back.
Instead of gathering all stakeholders and plan for the catchment, the Manyame Catchment
Council engaged a consultant to draw up a catchment outline plan. The catchment manager was not aware of how the consultant had gone about drawing the plan, but hinted that the plan was probably the result of what he termed “a desk study.”
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3.5 Upper Manyame Sub-Catchment chairman
According to the chairman stakeholder participation was said to have already taken off the ground, especially in rural areas. Outreaches and informative meetings had been held within the sub-catchment to raise the awareness of stakeholders on the existence and functions of sub-catchment councils. Such meetings were still to be held in urban centres.
The main problem the sub-catchment faced in trying to involve stakeholders to participate in water resources management was that of shortage of finance. Funds were needed to buy equipment, such as vehicles, which would then be used on outreaches in the rural areas. The chairman concluded that what was encouraging is that stakeholders had responded favourably and set up. Water point committees were also being set up.
3.6 Environment Africa
Environment Africa (EA) is a regional non-governmental organisation which is involved in environmental issues. EA has a number of water-related projects that are on going. It is currently hosting the Zimbabwe Country Water Partnership of the Global Water Partnership
(GWP). This was launched in 2000. This is aimed at leading the implementation of Integrated
Water Resources Management (IWRM) in the Lower Manyame. It is also involved in water resources in Zimbabwe through one of its projects, Water Africa.
Water Africa was launched in March 2003 as a project meant to unite stakeholders to solve the water problems in urban areas. Identified stakeholders involved in the project include
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local councils, government departments, industries and the general public. Environment
Africa launched the Water Africa project after realising that water resources in Zimbabwe are threatened by, among other things, pollution, and that there are still sections of society that do not have access to safe drinking water. Water Africa aims to raise awareness about the water situation in Zimbabwe and in the region through stakeholder participation. It also aims to encourage sustainable and equitable use of water.
One major activity of the project is the clean-up operation of the Mukuvisi River. The
Mukuvisi River passes through some of Harare’s industrial areas and suburbs as it flows into
Lake Chivero. The River is heavily polluted by chemicals and sewage from industry and residential areas alike. This made the water expensive for the City to purify. EA aims to clean up the river as a way of improving the quality of Harare’s water. It has brought together various industries that pollute the river or are affected by pollution as well as ZINWA, which is responsible for enforcing the Act. It was stressed that opting to clean up was a far much better option than prosecution. A task force to oversee this initiative was formed and is chaired by industry. The expectation is that every user pledges not to pollute the river. This river charter is supposed to be signed by all involved. To date a couple of companies have signed.
4. Conclusions
Political activity is an important aspect of governance, which explains why this study sought to examine how water featured on the local political agenda as reflected in local council elections. From this perspective it can be said that there was poor water governance. This was
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because water did not find its way into local political agenda. This state of affairs was contributed in part by the wider political agenda, as represented by the central government trying to regain the governance over Harare it had lost through democratic elections. The suspension of the executive mayor who hailed from the opposing political party, was a case in point.
It cold be concluded that there was some degree of stakeholder participation, which, however, was compromised by the fact that it was uncoordinated, involved a few stakeholders (it excluded the generality of the residents), tended to occur outside the designated formal channels. The commendable work done by Environment Africa of bringing together different stakeholders such as the City of Harare, industry and other institutions, was not related to the activities of the Upper Manyame sub-catchment or Manyame Catchment Council. The problem was also worsened by intra-organisational dynamics as represented by the Harare
Municipality where the different arms of the City participated in different activities without any coordination. The fact that a technician was assigned to represent the City at the
Manyame Catchment Council suggests that the City does not consider the new water institutions as important.
The lack of knowledge of new stakeholder institutions, which was common place, points to the fact that communication between the institutions and the stakeholders was flawed. This should be blamed on poor conception of participation, which should be based on joint analysis and dialogue among stakeholders rather than information dissemination (Marimbe and Manzungu, 2003).
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It can be concluded that stakeholder participation in water management in Harare is somehow taking place. As to whether this constitutes good governance practice is another issue. There has to be significant re-orientation of the efforts of the various activities that are being undertaken if good governance is to be achieved. As a general point it can be concluded that improving governance of water resources in an urban areas in Zimbabwe faces more challenges than in the rural areas. Unlike their rural counterparts urban residents were not considered as stakeholders in their own right. They were represented by an employee of the
City!. Clearly this is an anomaly that needs to be corrected.
References
Chenje, M. and Johnson, P. (Eds), 1996, Water in Southern Africa , SADC/IUCN/SARDC,
Maseru/Harare.
Dube, D and Swatuk L., 2002. Stakeholder participation in the new water management approach: a case study of the Save catchment, Zimbabwe, Physics and Chemistry of the
Earth . 27. 867-874.
Global Water Parternship, 2000. Towards water security: a framework for action. Global
Water Partnership.
Stockholm and London.
GWP-TAC, 2000. Integrated water resources management , Global Water Partnership,
Stockholm.
Machingambi, M and Manzungu, E., 2003. An evaluation of communities’ preparedness to manage domestic water sources in Zimbabwe’s rural areas, Physics and Chemisty of the
Earth, 28. 1039-1046
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Magadza, C.H.D., 1997. Water pollution and catchment management in Lake Chivero, in
Moyo, N.A.G. (ed) Lake Chivero: A polluted lake, University of Zimbabwe
Publications, Harare.
Marimbe, S and Manzungu, E., 2003. Challenges of communicating integrated water resource management in Zimbabwe. Physics and Chemisty of the Earth, 28. 1077-1084.
Moyo, N.A.G. (ed) Lake Chivero: A polluted lake, University of Zimbabwe Publications,
Harare
Nhapi, I. And Hoko, Z., 2000. A cleaner production to urban water management: Potential for application in Harare, Zimbabwe, Paper presented at the 3 rd
Waternet/Warfsa
Symposium on Integrating Water Supply and Water Demand for Sustainable Use of
Water Resources, Dar es Salaam 30-31 October 2002.
Zanamwe, L., 1997. Population growth and land use in the Manyame catchment area, in
Moyo, N.A.G., 1997. Lake Chivero: a polluted lake, University of Zimbabwe
Publications, Harare.
Zimbabwe, 1998a Water Act (Chapter 20:24) Government Printers, Harare.
Zimbabwe National Water Authority Act, 1998. (Chapter 20:25), Government Printers,
Harare.
Zimbabwe, 2000a Water (catchment councils) regulations.
Statutory instrument, no.33 of
2000. Harare: Government Printers.
Zimbabwe, 2000b Water (subcatchment councils) regulations) statutory instrument, no.47 of
2000. Harare: Government Printers.
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Tables
Table 1
Names and reasons of stakeholders interviewed
Stakeholder
Residents and representatives
Manyame Catchment Manager
Upper Manyame Sub-catchment Manager
Environment Africa
Harare Municipality
Combined Harare Residents’ Association
Issues

Knowledge of formal institutions in water resources management

Source of water and location of water treatment works

Perceived water problems

Importance attached to water in local government politics

Involvement of stakeholders in catchment management

Factors promoting or hindering stakeholder participation in catchment management

Participation in the water sector

Linkages between the municipality and stakeholders in the water sector,

Problems which the municipal faces related to water
 Involvement of the residents’
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association in the water sector
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Table 2
Perceived water problems
ISSUES
Level of rates: fair
Level of rates: too high
Quality of
1 water: very poor
Quality of water: fair
-

2

-
-
RESPONDENTS
3

4 5 6 7 8 9 10
      
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
       
Quality of water: good
-
Have had water supplies cut
Pollution: is a problem

-
      
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Pollution: is - not a problem
Source of pollution: industry
Source of - pollution: sewage
Source of pollution: household waste
-

-
-
-

-
-
-

- - - - -
  
- - - -


- - -

- - - - - -

-


Key

Agree
Do not agree
- No clear response
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Table 3
Awareness of new water management institutions
ISSUES
Catchment
Councils
Source of
1 water for
Harare
Harare’s water treatment works
Key
C- Councillor

Known
Not known
2 3
RESPONDENTS
4 5 6 7 8 9 10 C
     


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