LAST month, the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission summoned the Harare City Council to respond to questions relating to violation of residents' right to health, emanating from the 2023 cholera investigation in the capital and the 2024 Lake Chivero cyanobacteria water contamination report.
Persistent water challenges in the city are characteristic of problems caused by poor water infrastructure management by many municipalities across the country.
They have ignored years of warnings about crumbling pipes, silt-choked dams and vanishing wetlands.
But the country's water shortages cannot be entirely explained by weaknesses in local authorities alone.
Climate change has compounded already existing challenges, with droughts now occurring every two to three years instead of once a decade.
In its 2023 Integrated Report, the Zimbabwe National Water Authority said "national dams received less than half of the inflows which were received in each of the preceding years, 2022 and 2023".
Each dry spell leaves already-stressed dams shallower and more heavily silted, reducing their storage capacity and straining treatment plants.
In its latest update on August 25, the Zambezi River Authority -- the body that manages water on behalf of both Zimbabwe and Zambia -- reported that water levels in Lake Kariba had fallen to 478,45 metres (20,58 percent usable storage), down from 478,77 metres (22,88 percent) on August 5.
Kariba is designed to operate between 475,50m and 488,50m.
While the country's energy security is tied to water levels, these problems also reflect a broader issue of water scarcity.
Access to water, sanitation and hygiene is considered a basic human right.
For 62-year-old Mai Vimbayi of Gatsi village, Seke, water scarcity is a daily reality.
The well that has served her family for decades is now drying up.
"We now barely get a few buckets if we wake up very early. If it fails completely, I do not know how my family and neighbours will survive," she said.
In the country's two largest cities, Harare and Bulawayo, natural shocks and outdated infrastructure have combined to create a vicious cycle where taps run dry more often.
A shared water crisis
The strain on Zimbabwe's water infrastructure is most evident in its two largest cities -- Harare and Bulawayo.
Harare, which has a population of over two million, still relies on a water system originally built for just 300 000 people.
A parliamentary portfolio committee report in April confirmed that eastern suburbs like Ruwa and Mabvuku only receive water on weekends.
The city's water sources and infrastructure are in a state of crisis.
According to the Harare Master Plan (2025-2045), dams are up to 9 percent silted, pipes are corroded and leaking heavily and treatment plants are overloaded with sewage-polluted water.
Lake Chivero, the main water source, is clogged with plant and algal growth, which increases treatment costs and forces water rationing.
Last year, the water supply only reached 68,3 percent of registered properties, forcing residents to rely on boreholes and other unregulated groundwater sources.
This raises the risk of contamination and depletion.
The city's water infrastructure has failed to keep pace with its rapid population growth, a problem made worse by chronic underinvestment.
For 2025, Harare approved a US$548 million budget, but only 25 percent (US$137,3 million) went to capital projects, including water infrastructure.
Bulawayo, long dependent on small dams in the drought-prone Matabeleland province, faces similar pressures.
The Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey (ZDHS) 2023-2024 found that 99 percent of Bulawayo residents have access to drinking water, but the supply is fragile.
After the 2023/2024 El Niño-induced drought cut dam levels to 41,02 percent, the Bulawayo City Council introduced a 120-hour weekly water-shedding cycle from December 2023.
The human impact/climate factors
While statistics show an improvement in access to clean water countrywide, they hide significant inequalities across the country.
According to the latest ZDHS, 84 percent of households use "improved" drinking water sources, up from 78 percent in 2015.
However, this progress is not evenly distributed.
Only 41 percent of households have water on their premises, meaning the majority must fetch it elsewhere.
This burden falls disproportionately on women and girls, who make up 75 percent of those collecting water.
Access is also highly dependent on wealth.
Just 42 percent of the poorest households have basic water and sanitation services, compared to a nearly universal 97 percent for the well-heeled.
The gap in sanitation is equally stark.
In rural areas, about a quarter of homes lack toilets, increasing the risk of diseases like cholera, especially during droughts.
Climate change worsens water shortages
The water crisis is worsened by climate change, which is causing more frequent droughts.
According to a specialist from the International Finance Corporation, Zimbabwe has experienced 13 major droughts since the 1980s.
The frequency has increased dramatically, from roughly every three to five years in the 1980s and 1990s to every two to three years in the 2000s and even more recently.
"The following recorded drought seasons were associated with declines in crop production: 1982/1983, 1986/1987, 1992/1993, 1995/1996, 2002/2003, 2004/2005, 2007/2008, 2011/2012, 2012/2013, 2015/2016, 2019/2020, 2021/2022 and 2023/2024," said International Finance Corporation agriculture value chain specialist Mr Master Mushonga at an index insurance project results dissemination workshop last April.
"The 2010s and early 2020s show an even tighter pattern, with consecutive droughts in 2011/12 and 2012/13, followed by 2015/16, 2019/20, 2021/22 and the most recent in 2023/24."
This frequency, coupled with siltation in dams, has severely reduced water storage capacity.
Deforestation and wetland destruction further worsen the problem.
Wetlands act as natural sponges, storing rainwater and slowly releasing it into rivers and aquifers, but their destruction destabilises water systems, leading to
faster-emptying dams and increased flooding.
For example, a recent survey in Harare's reservoirs showed annual water yields have fallen from 560 megalitres (ML) to 480ML, a direct consequence of these environmental pressures.
One of the gravest threats, however, is the destruction of wetlands.
Harare was built on wetlands that once sustained streams and recharged aquifers.
Urban planning experts Dr Percy Toriro and Professor Innocent Chirisa warn: "One of the biggest threats to Harare's environment is the destruction of wetlands despite a proposal to protect water courses and rivers. As a result, there has been a massive invasion of sensitive ecological spaces without due regard in many areas of Harare."
As wetlands disappear, water systems become unstable, dams empty faster in dry seasons, rivers flood more during storms and aquifers fail to recharge.
While most wetlands destruction is man-made, another problem plighting the country's dams, siltation, is both natural and man-made.
But its consequences are similarly devastating.
Bathymetric surveys (that measure the depth and shape of water bodies) carried out on both Chivero and Manyame at full supply level showed that the reservoirs had silted up by 6 percent and 9 percent, respectively.
The National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1) and other policy documents call access to water and sanitation a "basic human right", echoing Sustainable Development Goal 6 (Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all).
The medium-term plan targeted raising safe drinking water access from 77,3 percent to at least 90 percent by 2025 and expanding storage from 15,4 million litres to 16,9 million litres.
The Government is making progress on NDS1 goals.
The Presidential Borehole Scheme aims to drill and equip 35 000 solar-powered boreholes countrywide.
At a broader level, dam capacity is being expanded.
In June 2023, the Chivhu Dam project was successfully commissioned by President Mnangagwa.
Earlier this month, the Government started allocating US$5 million monthly to accelerate construction of Lake Gwayi-Shangani and Kunzvi Dam, with walls expected to be complete by year-end.
Once finished, Lake Gwayi-Shangani will supply Bulawayo through a 252-kilometre pipeline with five pump stations, also supporting irrigation schemes along the route.
Kunzvi, with a 158-million-cubic- metre capacity, will boost Harare's supply and irrigate nearby growth points.
These projects, backed by ZiG2 billion from the 2025 National Budget, are part of a wider strategy to expand potable water, strengthen irrigation and build climate-resilient infrastructure.
Experts believe there should also be a dedicated programme to replace old pipes tied to these investments.
"Of the 320 megalitres produced per day at Morton Jaffray Water Treatment Plant, 60 percent is lost due to dilapidated infrastructure, aged metering and illegal connections," reported the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Local Government and Public
Works.
Observers say a multi-pronged approach is needed, including wetlands rehabilitation, mandatory rainwater harvesting and wastewater recycling for agriculture and industry.