Main photograph: Access to water in Zimbabwe and sanitation services are said to be dropping in terms of supply, quality and adequacy.
A strategy report for Zimbabwe aimed at accelerating access to sanitation and hygiene has revealed that there are no policies or strategies to deal with sanitation for homeless people.
The strategy report prepared by the Zimbabwe National Committee on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for 2011 to 2015 notes that authorities have turned a blind eye, hoping that the problem will go away.
The strategy seeks to accelerate access to sanitation and hygiene to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The report notes that the only places where street people can have access to sanitation are drop-in centres which are limited in capacity. “Some NGOs have been giving some assistance in the form of material support, but no initiatives for sanitation,” the report says. It adds that there are no integrated approaches on dealing with sanitation needs of those that have no homes and may be living on the street. In Zimbabwe, the strategy report says, the number of people who live on the street is increasing.
The people are reported not to have access to safe sanitation either because they cannot afford to pay for municipal facilities or because some of the facilities are locked at night. “Consequently in urban areas there is faecal matter along sand lanes, water trenches and other public places that are deemed private. This poses a health threat,” the report says.
It is reported that sanitation programmes in Zimbabwe have not deliberately targeted all sections of the community to ensure that there is no structural exclusion in the design of the programme, or technological and geographical physical exclusion where those furthest from the administrative centres receive the least support.
The urban population in Zimbabwe is reported to be growing rapidly mainly due to rural-urban migration. This high increase in urban population is said not to be matched by urban infrastructure including housing, water supply, sanitation and waste removal.
The growth is said not to be only restricted to major towns but is also affecting outlying rural growth centres, mining towns, peri-urban and informal settlements. “Access to water and sanitation services is dropping both in terms of reliability of supply, quality and adequacy,” the report says.
Informal settlements are also said to be sprouting each day as a result of shortage and prohibitive cost of accommodation in the urban areas. According to the government report the urban housing backlog list stood at one million families in 2004.
The report says there are no long-term sanitation programmes and clear approaches have not been finalized for the peri-urban, including low capacity by Rural District Councils to provide and manage services in informal and peri-urban areas.
The strategy has been prepared to put Zimbabwe back on track with regards to the sanitation MDG target. It says there is need for a change in approach. The government estimates that for the MDG target to be met, 65,000 latrine units need to be constructed per year, which is more than three times the maximum output of 18,000 latrines per year achieved during the peak of the well resourced Integrated Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Programme (IRWSSP) in the 1980s.
