Harare, Zimbabwe (News of the South)-An estimated 80% of Harare’s borehole and well water is contaminated by raw sewerage due to underground seepage and people using it are more at risk of contracting typhoid according to a research result.
This is in stark contrast to the usual perception that its council water that is unsafe in Zimbabwe’s capital city leading to many refusing to drink it and only using it for washing and bathing mainly.
The scenario has also led to a proliferation of water selling businesses.
The startling revelations were made by a technocrat who has been researching the state of water in the capital under the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), a government initiative to fight communicable diseases such as typhoid, dysentery and diarrhea.
Speaking at a workshop in the capital recently the official, who refused disclosure, said most of the said wells in the capital were not even wells as they were simply shallow ditches in which raw effluent from burst pipes contaminated the water putting the people at risk.
Health officials concurred saying cases of typhoid had already been noted in Glen View and Budiriro, places where Council rarely provides water and people rely on boreholes and well sources for water.
The two places where also the epicenters of the devastating cholera outbreak some few years back where thousands succumbed to the disease.
Health officials said they were currently not releasing data pertaining to the communicable diseases as a way of preserving their name.
An engineer with Harare City Council said people had simply the wrong perception about council water but it was sufficiently safe to drink.
Currently council is urging any non-governmental organisations that may wish to erect boreholes to further build tanks that can be chlorinated so that water isn’t used straight from the ground.
The WASH workshop was attended by District Officers from various places including Kuwadzana and Budiriro whilst engineers from the City Council and Ministry of Health officials were also there.
Access to safe and affordable drinking water by 2030 is one of the Sustainable Development Goals which are 17 in total.
Globally, over 2,5 billion people lack access to improved sanitation and estimated 740 million people do not have access to an improved water source.
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