Cholera: US$144m loot haunts Harare

MOSES MATENGA

A group of people, mainly women and children, line-up to draw water from a shallow well in Hopley, meters away from a populous market.

Yells of desperation are murmured as the seemingly anxious grouping jostle for turns to draw the little available precious liquid which is far from potable.

They appear oblivious of the consequences of drawing water from the shallow well but under the circumstances, their options are limited.

Harare City Council has for years failed to address the perennial water crisis and exposed the over two and half million residents of the metropolis to waterborne diseases.

Consequently, dozens of people are suffering from Cholera in the capital and the government is fretting over a possibility of a serious crisis if the water crisis is not solved.

Cholera, a bacterial disease causing severe diarrhoea and dehydration, usually spread in water, is fatal if not treated right away.

This sends chills down the spines of millions of Zimbabwe as they reminisce of the deadly 2008 to 2009 outbreak that saw 98,585 reported cases and 4,287 reported deaths, making it the largest and deadliest in the history of the country.

“Nothing has changed between now and 2008 in terms of supply of potable water in Harare,” Trust Rwizi, a residents’ rights activist said. “The reported number of cases are scary and if not well handled, we may return to the 2008 scenario.”

So dire is the water crisis in Harare that the government has intervened.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has instituted measures he said are meant to ease the water crisis.

Mnangagwa has ordered the immediate purchase of one-month worth of water treatment chemicals for Harare and appointment of a technical committee to help the city.

This has raised questions on grand looting at town house that saw the city acquiring a US$144 million loan from the China Exim Bank for the refurbishment of Morton Jaffray Water Works, 20 kilometres out of Harare.

The loan was touted as a panacea to the water crisis bedevilling Harare but instead of utilising the US$72 million availed under the facility, the local authority acquired luxurious vehicles for some of its directors.

Vehicles purchased included VW Amaroks, Ford Rangers among others and had nothing to do with the project.

The choice for luxury over service delivery was supported by then Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo who said the vehicles were necessary for the project.

Over 10 years later, there has been no progress on the water situation in the capital, raising issues of corruption, looting and bad choices by the council. The Chinese government is not happy with how the money was handled.

However, there have been fears of corruption, looting, overpricing of essentials by city officials that has stalled progress in attempts to restore sanity in water provision by the city.

Investigations also show that council officials are in the habit of overpricing critical material meant for rehabilitation of infrastructure necessary for provision of water in the capital.

Outside the controversial and mishandled US$144m loan facility, council officials have also been fingered in overpricing and corruption in other attempts to secure loans.

In 2019, the opposition-run Harare City Council attempted to award water and sewage contracts worth close to US$1 billion to four Chinese firms without going to tender using quotations that were highly inflated.

The matter was subjected to investigations by the Special Anti-Corruption Unit and the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) who probed the allegations of violation of public procurement procedures by named officials at the capital’s municipality.

The US$868 million deals were purportedly meant to address greater Harare’s perennial water crisis, which recently saw council temporarily cut off supplies to all areas due to critical shortages of chemicals and poorly performing infrastructure.

“We have seen council officials making a lot of money personally by benefitting from the water crisis and now that is haunting residents. Imagine if the US$144m loan was handled properly, we would be in a good space now,” Regis Tsika of the Residents Trust said.