BULAWAYO, ZIMBABWE – Sibusiso Nyathi, 43, says she was thrilled when she moved into her seven-room house she had built in Mahatshula, a medium-density suburb of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second-largest city.
She saved for 13 years to afford the house, which cost $25,000 in a country where the per capita gross national income is just $460 per year, according to UNICEF. Her sister, who works in South Africa, also gave her money to build the home.
But five years later, Nyathi says that a dilapidated sewage pipe nearby is ruining her dream home. The pipe has been spewing its ghastly effluent into the streets for more than four years.
“I am under siege,” Nyathi says. “Pungent smell has engulfed this area for years now. No amount of air fresheners can overpower this smell. Although I keep all windows closed, I cannot keep the smell outside.”
Nyathi, a mother of three boys and one girl, says the situation is even worse during the rainy season, when the area is flooded. She says the area becomes impassable, and the roads are awash with sewage.
“My children used to spend hours in the streets, playing soccer with their friends,” Nyathi says. “Now, they cannot step outside without confronting this disaster. They now stay confined in the house, and they are all unhappy.”
Nyathi says she has notified the local council officials but hasn’t received a favorable response.
“Fellow residents have also made reports, but nothing has happened,” she says dejectedly. “I can no longer afford to waste my resources to visit the city council officers as they evidently do not have any interest in dealing with this problem.”
Nyathi says that the sewer nightmare is ruining Bulawayo’s reputation.
“This city can no longer be called a City of Kings because kings do not live in sewage,” she says angrily. “The city council officials have let everyone in this city down. I am disappointed.”
Residents of Zimbabwe’s major cities say that dilapidated sewer systems are filling their streets with waste, contaminating their water supply and harming their health. City council officials say that the government is aware of the problem but can’t afford to overhaul the outdated infrastructure, which is further hampered by an acute water shortage. Residents’ associations are fostering a dialogue between citizens and public service providers as they continue to pressure the government.
Hyperinflation from 2006 to 2008 led to an increase in poverty levels in Zimbabwe and a decrease in the public sector’s capacity to respond effectively to service delivery needs in the struggling economy, according to a 2010 joint report by the Zimbabwe government and the United Nations. Meanwhile, the service needs have been growing.
“Population pressure in the urban areas has overburdened sewage and water reticulation systems, creating serious environmental health problems such as the much publicised (sic) cholera outbreak in 2009,” according to the report. “The once functional household waste management system has deteriorated, resulting in huge mounds of uncollected waste.”
Across the street from Nyathi’s house is a plush eight-room home belonging to Marko Ncube. Ncube, 65, says he built his house in 2008.
“I did not realize that there were some old sewer lines close to this suburb,” he says. “These sewer lines are from older suburbs, such as Khumalo, that were established more than 50 years ago. The sewer system has not received any major attention. The whole system needs to be overhauled.”
Ncube, a retired civil servant, says he had planned to retire in a quiet suburb away from the hustle and bustle of Bulawayo’s high-density areas.
“Mahatshula was the most favorable place to be,” he says. “There are no heavy manufacturing industries close by, so there is no noise. The stands [plots] were relatively big, and I thought I had found my little haven to retire after years of serving my country.”
Ncube says that if he had known of this problem, he would have settled in a different residential area. Now, he can no longer afford to buy another house elsewhere, as the costs have become prohibitive.
Like Nyathi, Ncube says that he has also visited the city council to report the sewage problems. But no help has materialized.
Zibusiso Dube, 26, the information manager for the Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association, says residents have grown tired of reporting cases of burst or blocked sewer pipes.
“There are other areas such as Luveve where leaking sewage has formed some streams,” Dube says. “These sewage streams are feeding into rivers that supply water to Bulawayo metropolitan city. This is very deplorable.”
And the pollution is not just limited to Bulawayo and its suburbs.
The sprawling metropolitan city of Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital, lies 450 kilometers northeast of Bulawayo. A huge banner boldly emblazoned with the message, “Welcome to the Sunshine City,” greets visitors on the drive from the airport to the capital.
But Edina Banda, 54, one of the capital’s 1 million residents, says the sun has long set on Harare.
“This town used to be always sparkling with beautiful flowers adorning roadsides,” says Banda, who lives in the high-density suburb of Budiriro. “There was an air of freshness everywhere, but the air is now stinking. Everywhere you look, there is sewage flowing along the streets, and garbage is piling everywhere because the council is failing to collect it on time. The town is a health hazard and a death trap to us.”
Banda says she fears for her safety every day and worries about the health of her three young grandchildren, who spend their time playing in the polluted streets.
Pretty Chabuda, advocacy officer for Harare Residents’ Trust, a local residents’ association, says there are many areas in Harare that face perennial sewage problems, listing various suburbs.
“There is an area between Westlea suburb and Cold Comfort that has now been given the name ‘Pamasewage’ because sewage is always flowing on that area,” she says, using a term that means “sewage area.”
Chabuda says that the pollution is contaminating local water sources. Despite the overflow of sewage in the suburb of Crowborough, she says that residents in the area have been forced to dig shallow wells to get water for domestic consumption because of the acute water problems facing the city.
“These unsafe sources of water that have been dug near sewage overflows are a key factor that is linked to the February 2012 typhoid outbreaks, where 2,900 cases were recorded,” Chabuda says.
Dr. Godfrey Nerupfunde, a general practitioner in the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, says raw sewage is harmful to humans, animals and the environment.
“Diseases such as typhoid, cholera and diarrhea become prevalent if there is a poor sewage disposal mechanism,” he says. “Sewage is also harmful to the environment because when it is decomposing, raw sewage reduces the amount of oxygen in rivers, and this depletes aquatic life.”
Chabuda calls the poor management of the sewer system an affront to the residents of Harare and a violation of their rights to a clean environment.
Section 4 of the Environment Management Act of 2005 guarantees everyone the right to a clean environment that is not harmful to their health. Section 57 (1) of the same act sets fines and/or imprisonment for discharging or permitting the discharge of any poison or toxic, noxious or obstructing matter, radioactive waste or other pollutants into the aquatic environment or contravening water pollution control standards.
Bulawayo City Council is responsible for managing the city’s sewer system.
Nesisa Mpofu, the senior public relations officer for Bulawayo City Council, says the city council is aware of the problems of the dilapidated sewer infrastructure and its potential consequences to residents.
“We are aware of the problem,” Mpofu says. “Old suburbs in Bulawayo such as Queens Park are the most severely affected. The extent of the damage requires a complete overhaul of the whole sewerage system, and this requires a lot of money, which the council does not have.”
Mpofu says that at the moment, donors fund most of the city council projects, such as those regarding water supply and sewer management. She adds that the council can carry out repairs and renovations only when donors agree to fund such projects.
She says that the city council is aware of the potential health disaster caused by leaking sewer pipes. But she repeats that there is nothing that it can do because of financial shortages to carry out such massive projects.
Mpofu says that acute water shortages in the supply dams have forced the city council to impose 72 hours of water shedding per week on residents. This has exacerbated the sewage problem.
She says that the council asks all households to participate in a flushing exercise to prevent blockages.
“Every household is requested to flush their toilets systematically at 7:30 p.m. the very day after the 72 hours of water shedding,” she says. “This is done to prevent any sewer blockages as we anticipate longer periods without water in the reticulation system.”
Meanwhile, residents associations in both Harare and Bulawayo are working to contribute to a solution.
Chabuda says that Harare Residents’ Trust advocates for productive engagement and has held focus group discussions and community forums for public service providers and residents to interact in order to deliberate how best to manage waste and emerging dump sites within communities.
Dube says that his organization recognizes that the city council has been attending to some blocked sewer pipes, but the pace is slow. He says that his organization has trained some city residents on environmental issues so that they are more aware of hazards that may cause disease outbreaks. The organization seeks to empower Bulawayo city residents on local governance issues and collective decision-making through effective participation in order to improve service delivery.
“As residents and residents representing organizations, we have to continue to lobby the city council officials to urgently attend to such potential disasters,” he says.
