Country background
- Due to a difficult political and economic situation, Zimbabwe’s water supply and sanitation services have suffered a major collapse of coverage and quality in both urban and rural areas.
- A country wide cholera outbreak in 2008 resulted in over 100,000 cholera cases and 4,300 deaths as recorded by July 2009.
Policies and strategies
- In response to recommendations summarized in the National Master Plan for Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (NMP, 1985), Zimbabwe developed an ambitious Integrated Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Programme (IRWSSP) in 1987 aimed at achieving improved access to safe water and sanitation in communal, peri-urban and resettlement areas. The general objective of the programme is to improve health conditions and the quality of life for the poor and unserved populations.
- IRWSSP is built on the principle of integrating the development of water and sanitation facilities together with the promotion of health and hygiene education, training and capacity building, community mobilization, establishment of sustainable operation and maintenance systems, and transfer of knowledge to user communities.
- In 2004, the National Advisory Commission (NAC) developed an updated Domestic Water Supply and Sanitation Policy, which was never ratified due to emerging political situation. The policy is currently under review.
- As part of the International Year of Sanitation (IYS) 2008, Zimbabwe developed a Draft National Strategy for Sanitation (2009-2013).
- The Strategy to Accelerate access to Sanitation and Hygiene July 2011-2015 provides the framework to eliminate Open Defaecation (from 33% to under 10% by 2015) and to reach the Millenium Development Goals.
Institutions
- Policy making and regulatory functions are responsibilities of the National Advisory Commission (NAC) and the Department of Water Resources under the Ministry of Water Resources and Development (MoWRD).
- The 1997 Zimbabwe National Water Authority Bill established the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA), a statutory corporation being in charge of national water resources planning, management and development. The authority has previously played a significant role in urban water supply and sewerage.
- Local authorities are mandated with the distribution and treatment of water and waste water.
- The Department of Infrastructure was recently moved to the Ministry of Transport, Communication and Infrastructural Development (MoTCID). This has raised concern that particularly sanitation and hygiene, which have always been the poor cousin of water, will further be marginalized under transport.
- Rural sanitation and hygiene fall under the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare (MoHCW). The Department of Environmental Health (EHD) under the MoHCW is the lead national body for (environmental) health education, hygiene promotion, rural sanitation and public health oversight. EHD also supports the development of family wells and simple community water supplies, such as springs and hand-dug or -drilled boreholes.
- Sector coordination: The National Action Committee (NAC) provides overall leadership in WASH and in coordinating allocation of funding, resources, donors and NGOs. In 2008, the NAC agreed to create a National Hygiene and Sanitation Task Force (NSTF) which comprises under the chair of MoHCW all relevant ministries, NGOs and development partners. After temporarily having been transformed into a National Sanitation Committee (NAC), the NSTF was revitalized to focus on implementing the National Strategy for Sanitation within a time bound period.
