An overview of the city of Gweru, Zimbabwe’s water supply chain capacity: towards a demand-oriented approach in domestic water service delivery

Abstract

Following complaints about water shortages in some areas of Gweru, the paper assessed the availability of enabling capacities to efficiently and sufficiently deliver water to the residents of Gweru in line with the existing level of demand. The key inspected capacity aspects were infrastructure, human resources, finances and physical availability of raw water at source. Purposively selected informants from Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) and Gweru city council (GCC) provided data on the infrastructural, financial and human resources situation of GCC. Dam levels data for Gweru's three supply dams were obtained from ZINWA records through the assistance of Sanyati Catchment Hydrologist. The raw water availability was assessed with the aid of MannKendall test using a 10 years period data set from 2003 to 2012 for trend analysis. Findings revealed that the water sources were not experiencing major changes in water levels, to be precise, the changes were insignificant. However, given the increase in population and demand, any slightest negative change in the supply chain would further widen the gap between supply and demand. The study also uncovered that GCC had challenges in terms of the infrastructure, mainly due to financial constraints. Notably, GCC was not experiencing high staff turnover, but it was however, seriously under staffed and failing to effectively monitor water use in the city. Therefore, strong financial injection is required to support staff and resuscitate the reticulation system. Given the perpetual water shortages in Gweru and the status quo in the supply chain, water demand management strategies, wastewater use and consumer education are consequently proposed as measures that would ensure continuous water supply for all needs in the city.

Implications of the Urban Water and Food Systems Governance Nexus for Household Food Security in the City of Gweru, Zimbabwe

“…Urban residents use water to grow vegetables throughout the year, which is why the urban water supply is critical during the intervening dry periods. However, in Gweru the city council regularly imposes severe water rationing during droughts (Kusena & Beckedahl, 2016). This is in line with the Urban Councils Act (Chapter 29:15) (Government of Zimbabwe, 1984), which allows for emergency water rationing.…”

“…However, the available evidence is that a significant part of Zimbabwe's urban population is currently food insecure because of soaring food prices (Mangwanya & Manyeruke, 2019;Tawodzera & Chigumira, 2019). Incomes have reached unprecedented levels of unreliability, with paydays and the value of salaries changing every month, particularly in civil service departments (Kusena & Beckedahl, 2016;LEDRIZ, 2016). Zimbabwe's economic crisis since 2000 has resulted in high unemployment, causing poverty that manifests itself in household food shortages due to lack of buying power even when food is available in supermarkets (Ndlovu et al, 2020;ZimStat, 2015;Mudzengerere, 2012).…”

“…Zimbabwean local authorities have operated with delegated powers over water governance since independence (Wekwete, 1992;Kusena & Beckedahl, 2016). The Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing is responsible for the decentralization of designated powers and responsibilities from central government to lower-tier structures.…”

Pricing Strategies for Competitive Water Supply Chains under Different Power Structures: An Application to the South-to-North Water Diversion Project in China

“…They found the complementary forms of water supply fill the gaps left because of the failure of municipal services. In Gweru, Kusena and Beckedahl [26] evaluated the effective water capacity, satisfied the needs of local residents, and resolved the negative impacts of the supply chain. Neil and Barry [27] developed arguments for more effective procurements leading to real cost reduction and for service enhancement on a sustainable basis.…”

Dissolved organic matter in hand-dug well water as groundwater quality indicator: assessment using laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy and multivariate statistical techniques

“…Groundwater sources are very important resource for drinking purpose because it has been found to contain over 90% of the fresh water recharge over the world. Therefore, there is always the need to study groundwater quality since groundwater is difficult and expensive to restore once polluted by a variety of contaminants, both inorganic and organic [28].…”