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Download the Full Report HUMAN TROUBLED WATER RIGHTS Burst Pipes, Contaminated Wells, and Open Defecation WATCH in Zimbabwe’s Capital Troubled Water Burst Pipes, Contaminated Wells, and Open Defecation in Zimbabwe’s Capital Copyright © 2013 Human Rights Watch All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America ISBN: 978-1-62313-0800 Cover design by Rafael Jimenez Human Rights Watch is dedicated to protecting the human rights of people around the world. We stand with victims and activists to prevent discrimination, to uphold political freedom, to protect people from inhumane conduct in wartime, and to bring offenders to justice. We investigate and expose human rights violations and hold abusers accountable. We challenge governments and those who hold power to end abusive practices and respect international human rights law. We enlist the public and the international community to support the cause of human rights for all. Human Rights Watch is an international organization with staff in more than 40 countries, and offices in Amsterdam, Beirut, Berlin, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Goma, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Nairobi, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, Tunis, Washington DC, and Zurich. For more information, please visit our website: http://www.hrw.org NOVEMBER 2013 978-1-62313-0800 Troubled Water Burst Pipes, Contaminated Wells, and Open Defecation in Zimbabwe’s Capital Summary ........................................................................................................................... 1 Failure to Provide Access to Potable Water ............................................................................... 2 Failure to Provide Health Information ........................................................................................ 3 Poor Sanitation......................................................................................................................... 3 Public Sector Corruption, Mismanagement and Lack of Political Will ......................................... 5 International Law ..................................................................................................................... 6 Right to Water ................................................................................................................... 6 Right to Sanitation ............................................................................................................ 8 Domestic Law .......................................................................................................................... 9 Moving Forward ...................................................................................................................... 10 Recommendations ............................................................................................................ 12 To the Government of Zimbabwe ............................................................................................. 12 To Ministry of Water, Environment and Climate ....................................................................... 12 To the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare ............................................................................. 12 To the Ministry of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development ........................................ 13 To the Harare City Council and Harare Water ............................................................................ 13 To the Donor Community......................................................................................................... 13 Methodology .....................................................................................................................14 I. Introduction ................................................................................................................... 15 II. Findings ........................................................................................................................ 17 Failure to Provide Access to Potable Water .............................................................................. 18 Quantity/Availability ........................................................................................................ 18 Quality ............................................................................................................................. 21 Water Disconnections ..................................................................................................... 26 Access for Vulnerable and Marginalized Populations ....................................................... 29 Impact on Education ........................................................................................................ 33 Violence ........................................................................................................................... 34 Access to Health Information .................................................................................................. 35 Access to Sanitation ............................................................................................................... 36 Lack of Appropriate Toilets ............................................................................................... 36 Sewage ............................................................................................................................ 37 Refuse ............................................................................................................................ 40 III. Donor Response .......................................................................................................... 43 IV. Political Will, Mismanagement and Government Corruption ......................................... 45 V. International and Domestic Obligations ........................................................................ 52 International Legal Obligations ............................................................................................... 52 Right to Water .................................................................................................................. 52 Right to Sanitation ........................................................................................................... 54 Right to Health Information .............................................................................................. 55 Domestic Legal Obligations .................................................................................................... 56 Right to Water .................................................................................................................. 56 Right to Sanitation ........................................................................................................... 56 Right to Health Information .............................................................................................. 57 Non-Discrimination .......................................................................................................... 58 Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... 59 Summary Abigail Chomo, a widow, lives in a small brick house with her three children in Dzivarasekwa, a working class suburb west of Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital. She used to have four children. In November 2012, her youngest daughter, Helen, contracted typhoid fever at age 4, probably from drinking contaminated water. Although typhoid fever is treatable with antibiotics, Helen was also HIV positive and had a weak immune system, and died. Abigail’s daughter was not the only family member who died from a waterborne disease. Four years earlier, her mother was one of an estimated 4,200 people in Zimbabwe to die from cholera. With prompt and proper treatment, cholera, like typhoid, can have a mortality rate below 1 percent. Without prompt treatment, however, mortality rates can soar. The Zimbabwean government’s response to the cholera outbreak was characterized by denial, neglect, and cover-up. Overall, between 2008 and 2009, 100,000 people in the country fell ill with cholera. It was Africa’s worst cholera epidemic in 15 years. Children are particularly vulnerable to waterborne disease. In Zimbabwe, diarrhea is responsible for 10 percent of deaths of children under the age of five. Access to potable drinking water and appropriate sanitation can prevent waterborne diseases, including typhoid, cholera, and diarrhea. Today, the same conditions that allowed the 2008-09 cholera epidemic to flourish—poor sanitation, high-density living conditions, lack of access to potable water, official denial of the magnitude of the problem, and lack of information about the safety of the public water supply —persist. Corruption, which has a negative impact on water governance globally, appears on the rise in Zimbabwe. In 2012, Transparency International ranked Zimbabwe the 13th most corrupt country in the world, a slip from its 2008 rank as 24th. According to the group, “When corruption leads to contaminated drinking water and destroyed ecosystems, the detrimental consequences are often irreversible.” The risk of another cholera outbreak in Harare is significant and the number of people sick from lack of access to potable water and sanitation is startling; in the past year there have been over 3,000 typhoid cases reported in Harare alone. Healthcare workers believe the actual number of people infected is much higher. According to the World Bank, the amount of municipal water available
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