Water and sanitation hygiene: relief for Murehwa and Nyanga residents

A few months ago, Kennedy Katsande from Sisk high density suburb in Murehwa faced a serious sanitation challenge.

Like many residents in the peri-urban area, Katsande used a makeshift toilet; sometimes, he was forced to defecate in the open.

However, Katsande is a happy man thanks to the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene programme that is currently taking place in Murehwa.

The programme is funded by the European Union and implemented by the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (Cafod) as well as Caritas Zimbabwe.

“Our stands are too small thereby making it impossible for the toilet to be six metres from the water source. This exposed us to dirt related diseases, but the EU funded water and sanitation programme changed our situation for good,” said Katsande.

Cafod and Caritas Zimbabwe’s priority in Murehwa is the rehabilitation of a sewage system and landfills, a fact supported by Murehwa District Engineer, Ernest Sitole.

“We are working with organisations that are getting funding from the EU to rehabilitate sewage system. Our goal is to improve the water and sanitation system in Murehwa,” he said.

A similar programme, with the same participating organisations, is underway in Nyanga, where the water treatment and sewerage reticulation systems, just like in Murehwa, were installed more than 30 years ago for populations far smaller than the current size.

This has reduced access to improved sanitation services in these small urban areas.

More so, poor hygiene practices in both Nyanga and Murehwa increase the risk of diseases such as diarrhoea, cholera, and dysentery.

Hilda Nyabunze, a community member in Nyanga, approved the project.

“For too long we have been marginalised and we would like to thank the EU and its partners who are working with the government in transforming rural lives,” she said.

Nyabunze also applauded the EU Water Facility Programme for promoting the sharing of health and hygiene information.

“Before the programme, most villagers did not have much knowledge about issues such as hand washing, digging of rubbish pits as well as maintenance of a disease free living environment around homesteads and schools,” she said.

To date, Cafod and Caritas Zimbabwe provided Murehwa and Nyanga residents with 11 public/institutional latrines and 16 water tanks at public and institutional toilet facilities to guarantee availability of water for drinking and flush toilet use.

The organisations also rehabilitated two sewage treatment plants and supplied two refuse compactors.

Significantly, the 3^rd EU Water Facility programme is helping seven districts to realise the right to portable water and sanitation – key pillars to socio-economic transformation.

The purpose in life of the programme is to contribute to progress towards MDG’s 7 of halving the proportion of people without sustainable access to basic sanitation in Zimbabwe.

Without doubt, the programme is sustainably improving the living conditions, health, human dignity, economic productivity as well as the environment in poor urban and peri- urban areas of Nyanga and Murehwa, through an integrated approach to sanitation development.

It is further assumed that when this programme unfolds in 2016, it will leave 300 000 Zimbabweans with access to adequate and improved toilets at schools clinics and homes, 450 000 people in better health through improved hygiene practices and 420 000 with all year round access to clean water.