sanitary issues in zimbabwe vs corruption

children playing at a dumpsite in harare

borehole in bulawayo

  

Zimbabwe, with rich farmland and natural resources including gold and diamonds, should be a middle-income country. But its resources are controlled by a tiny elite, and President Robert Mugabe continues to battle with Western governments and foreign investors, deterring the trade and investment that the country badly needs.

Until the late 1980s, the government supplied safe drinking water to 85 per cent of Zimbabwe’s population. But decades of neglect and corruption have left the pipes dry, forcing many people to drink contaminated water. A cholera epidemic here in 2008 killed more than 4,000 people and sickened another 100,000.

Last year, a report by Human Rights Watch warned that Zimbabwe is at risk of another cholera outbreak because of the continuing shortages of clean water. Since then, little has been done to fix the water shortages, despite government pledges, residents say. “We only see the politicians when they’re campaigning,” said Mr. Gumboreshumba.

A bitter split in Zimbabwe’s ruling party is the latest distraction from the promises. Grace Mugabe, wife of the long-ruling Zimbabwean autocrat, has been relentlessly attacking the vice-president, Joice Mujuru, as a party congress approaches. For months, the country has been consumed by a power struggle over which faction will control the political succession when the 90-year-old President is gone.