Harare City Council Taken To Court Over Water Issue
It seems that the Harare City Council will have their day in court soon, as the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) organisation has said that they will take the council to court for failing to supply residents with running water.
Some areas in Harare have been left without any running water supply for years on end. In areas such as Mabvuku and Tafara, residents has had to cope without proper, clean, running water for more than 5 years.
The Harare City Council has promised numerous times that they would provide treated running water to residents in the affected Harare areas, yet these promises are yet to be realized.
The lack of clean, running water has now forced residents in the Harare area to use unsafe, dirty wells for domestic water use. This has also increased the number of cholera cases in teh area.
In an even bigger twist of fate, the Harare City Council – who is failing to provide running water – is actually sending residents water bills and then even suing them for failing to pay said bill.
The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights are aiming to address all these issues and have said that they will take the case to the highest court in the land.
As for now, they said that they are “mobilising evidence” to bring forward in court to proof that the Harare residents’ human rights are being violated.
“…[sic] What we are doing at the moment, is that we are mobilising evidence; say in Kuwadzana; we would want to know from each ward and each household what the situation is like so that we take consolidated evidence to the courts,” a representative for ZLHR said.
