More than 2 million people in and around Zimbabwe’s capital city, Harare, are currently without access to municipal drinking water, the result of a years-long drought and high water pollution levels, Climate Change News reported.
More than 2 million people in and around Zimbabwe’s capital city, Harare, are currently without access to municipal drinking water, the result of a years-long drought and high water pollution levels, Climate Change News reported. With their taps running dry, residents are instead relying on merchants, open wells, streams, and boreholes for water.
According to Harare’s city authority, just 50 percent of the 4.5 million people in the capital and its four satellite towns currently have access to municipal water. Two of the four dams that supply water to the city have run dry, leading to a reliance on heavily polluted water from the two remaining dams. Harare’s mayor Herbert Gomba told Climate Change News that the city was producing only 450 million liters of water a day, less than half of its daily demand. Community organizers believe the actual supply is closer to 100 million liters.
Zimbabwe is one of several major cities around the world facing water shortages, in large part due to climate change and an increase in extreme drought in recent years. Municipal water lines in the Indian city of Chennai, population 8 million, have recently run dry. In Zimbabwe, meteorologists say rains are not expected in Harare until October at the earliest. Earlier this month, officials told residents that the city will only be able to provide municipal water once a week.
Read more at: Yale Environment 360
Downtown Harare, Zimbabwe's capital city via PIXABAY
