Seven urban centers of Zimbabwe have been identified by the Zimbabwe Reconstruction Fund (ZIMREF) to benefit from a $20 million project to improve access to water of for their residence.
The project that has included the Zimbabwe National Water Projects in its planning also seeks to strengthen planning and regulation in the water and sanitation sector.
The urban centres include Guruve, Lupane, Nembudziya, Madziwa, Zimunya, Gutu and also Mataga.
“We are previledged to be part of the ZNWP as an implementing agency, and even more excited to be in the position to provide drinkable water to the people of Guruve, who have endured long periods of having no water in their taps” said Fortune Musoni, the ZNWP project engineer on the World Bank website.
Statistics have shown that 81% of the Zimbabwean population has access to improved drinking water sources although some still have to travel long distances.
Despite these developments, water supplied by some urban areas has been questionable.
An environmentalist and a professor with the University of Zimbabwe Christopher Magadza last year claimed that Harare residents are drinking polluted water.
“Water coming in from our flush system is actually what people are drinking right now… very little is coming in from Manyame and Mukuvisi” said Magadza in the Daily News.
The Zimbabwe’s capital has got a history of its residents dying of cholera, a disease associated with unsafe drinking water. ZIMREF’s project is expected to connect more than two thousand residential homes in Guruve. Similar work is already taking place in Zimunya and Lupane according to the World Bank website.