National Association of Youths Organisations (NAYO) in partnership with young people and Civil Society Organisations (CSO) has launched a right to water campaign in commemoration of the International Human Rights Day.
The campaign aims to awaken people to injustice and to claim human rights to safe water and sanitation.
“The right to water contains both freedoms and entitlements. The freedoms include the right to maintain access to existing water supplies necessary for the right to water, and the right to be free from interference, such as the right to be free from arbitrary disconnections or contamination of water supplies,” the organisation says.
“Moreover, the elements of the right to water must be adequate for human dignity, life and health.”
The youth organisation calls for the Government of Zimbabwe to put in place measures to curb the pollution of water sources which continues unabated with an adverse effect of increasing cost of water treatment that has ripple effects on water quality and supply.
Zimbabwe Government has to prioritise in its 2020 Budget the construction of alternative water sources to increase water supply within the country and plug the privatisation of water.
The organisation also calls for the government to take progressive steps towards realising the need for portable clean water in educational institutions, homes and business facilities across the whole country.
The government must also put in place measures to ensure that domestic water must not be disconnected arbitrarily especially for reasons of failing to pay the rates across the country where water supply is metered.
Around 2.2 billion people lack safe water according to statistics.
“With just ten years to achieve universal access to water and sanitation (SDG 6), there is no time for false promises. We need urgent financing and delivery of services to citizens,” the organisation says.
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