Posted on 08/22/2019 12:46:00 AM PDT by Windflier
...life without water is a daily nightmare endured in Zimbabwe's capital city, Harare, where more than two million people only have running water once a week, according to the New York Times.
The water shortage there means residents ration bathroom trips and stand in interminable lines to fill buckets and cans at communal boreholes. One mother profiled by the New York Times got in line at 3 a.m. By the afternoon, she was still standing in line.
The boreholes are a problem too since they are so polluted. "Water-borne diseases linked to these boreholes are on the rise, but people have had to take in their own hands water supply because the utility has failed to provide water," said Jean-Marie Kileshye-Onema, network manager of WaterNet, as Climate Change News reported.
The water rationing started in June in the country's two major cities, Harare and Bulawayo. The economics of water purification are also working against Zimbabwe. The city government has had to work a critical shortage of purifying chemicals, which cost in excess of $3 million per month, according to CNN.
"We are using more chemicals and we have not been able to procure enough safe chemicals as a result, we are targeting to provide water to our residents with a minimum of once a week' supply of the precious liquid," said Mabhena Moyo, Harare's Acting Water director, as CNN reported.
The shortage, which started in January but has been exacerbated in July, is due to an awful drought year from the climate crisis. Poor water management has also squandered the remaining water. An estimate of 45 to 60 percent of the water that's left in Harare reservoirs is lost through leakage and theft, said Herbert Gomba, the mayor of Harare, as the New York Times reported.
"There is a rotational water supply within the five towns," said Michael Chideme, Harare city council corporate communications manager, to Climate Change News. "Some people are getting water five days a week especially in the western suburbs, but the northern suburbs are going for weeks without a drop in their taps."
The water crisis has raised fears of a cholera outbreak or other waterborne diseases, especially in areas where residents have lived without water for three months, said Community Water Alliance, an NGO, as CNN reported.
Sure, failed government is everywhere. There are differences, however. Africa tells its own story. Cuba, another. Venezuela, still another.
What they have in common is that all were a result of rebellion against "Their Devil." The White Man, the Yanqui, the capitalist.
In each case, they chose their path. It is what it is.
Do we have any culpability? No. Who are you going to help? Everyone everywhere? Can't do that.
Where do you draw the line? Will anything you try to do make the situation worse?
Africa (with some exceptions) is a continent of aid junkies.
Africa (with some exceptions)...Not really.
They lose 40-60% of their water through leakage and theft and the author blames the problem on climate change?
Tell me more.
They should pay us reparations for bringing their ancestors here!
I agree this is not a laughing matter, but totally predictable. As in every country where the oppressed masses finally get the upper hand over the European colonists, it descends into chaos. Does that mean colonialism is right? No, but it does mean that when racial politics prevails over reason, nothing good can come from it.
And of course, also predictably, the article finds a way to lay the blame at the feet of western industrial countries by creating “climate change.” (I’m sure there were no droughts before the industrial revolution, and global worming destroyed all those reservoirs and water pipes!).
So how much chaos and suffering is required before the starving (and now thirsting) population decides to get off the racial vengeance train and import some engineering and management knowledge to begin to rebuild their failed society? I guess history will show us, but apparently not enough yet.
An African who gets it.....
“For God’s Sake Please Stop the Aid”
FYI- If You watch the Testing when the Reagent (small foil packet with Powder) added to the Sample the Water will turn PINK if the Water has ANY Chlorine in it. The darker the Color the Higher the Chlorine Residual is. If the Sample doesn't have any Color then it has NO Chlorine in it.
I thought you meant pilates.
It happened in Venezuela too. It’s part of the conviction that electricity comes from a wall socket and water from a tap, and money from an ATM machine. You don’t have to maintain anything, it’s magic. And like Venezuela, people are digging wells in their backyards and using untreated water from them because they haven’t a choice. That’s risky enough in rural areas; in cities it’s a ticket to cholera.
“Freeeeee Nelson Mandela.
Freeeeeeeee Nelson Mandela.”
bttt
Figured
“Peace has come to Zimbabwe!”
Since you wrote that 2.5 years ago, your words more tragically apply here in the USA, where “the cancel culture” pursues the Zimbabwe model, incredibly.
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